US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data shows that net non-commercial positions in oil rose to 233.6k.<\/p>\n
This was up from 218.7k in the previous report.<\/p>\n
We’ve seen a notable shift in speculative positioning in oil markets. Net long positions held by non-commercial traders have increased to 233.6K contracts. This move indicates that large funds are growing more confident that oil prices will climb higher in the near term.<\/p>\n
This bullish sentiment is likely fueled by ongoing supply-side pressures. OPEC+ has signaled it will maintain its production cuts through the second quarter, while geopolitical tensions continue to disrupt key shipping lanes. US crude inventories also posted a surprise draw of 1.9 million barrels this week, further tightening the immediate supply picture.<\/p>\n
On the demand side, recent manufacturing PMI data from China has surpassed expectations for the second straight month, signaling a rise in energy consumption. This coincides with the seasonal build-up for the summer driving season in the United States, which typically boosts gasoline and crude demand. We see these factors creating a solid floor for prices around the $80 per barrel mark for WTI.<\/p>\n
Looking back, this pattern is reminiscent of the market setup we saw in the third quarter of 2025. During that period, a similar increase in speculative longs preceded a rally that took WTI crude from the low $70s to above $85. That historical precedent should be a key consideration for positioning in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Given this data, traders should consider positioning for upward price movement. Strategies like buying call options or implementing bull call spreads on crude futures could offer favorable risk-reward profiles to capitalize on potential gains.<\/p>\n
We believe remaining on the sidelines or holding significant short positions carries increasing risk in this environment.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CFTC data shows net non-commercial oil positions rose to 233.6k, up from 218.7k previously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}