CFTC: Natural-Gas Speculators Boost Net Short Position

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Large noncommercial traders increased their net-short position in natural-gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 4.2% during the week ended Feb. 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported Friday.

Speculative, or noncommercial, traders added 838 contracts to their long position in futures-only contracts and 11,285 contracts to their short position, yielding a net-short position of 257,283 contracts, up 10,447 from the previous week. These traders have added to their net-short position for four consecutive weeks.

Open interest was 960,208, up 1.6% from the previous week.

In futures and options combined, noncommercial traders were net short 221,980 contracts, up 11,214 from the previous week.

Commercial traders were net long in futures-only contracts by 223,838 contracts. These traders added 6,989 contracts to their long position and cut 8,213 contracts from their short position.

The net long position is the difference between the number of long positions, or bets that prices will rise, and short positions, or bets that prices will fall.

Benchmark natural-gas futures on the Nymex fell by 2.7% during the week covered by the CFTC data.

 
                  Week Ended        Previous 
                   Feb. 22            Week 
 
NYMEX GAS FUTURES ONLY 
Long 
   Noncommercial   137,154          136,316 
   Commercial      429,669          442,680 
Short 
   Noncommercial   394,437          383,152 
   Commercial      205,831          214,044 
 
NYMEX GAS FUTURES AND OPTIONS COMBINED 
Long 
   Noncommercial   167,484          167,148 
   Commercial      437,062          430,047 
Short 
   Noncommercial   389,464          377,914 
   Commercial      250,983          259,292 
 

Money managers, such as hedge funds, increased their net-short position in Nymex natural-gas futures to 188,610 contracts in the week, up 15,176 contracts from the previous week, after cutting long contracts and adding short contracts.

The CFTC began splitting large traders into four categories in September 2009. Money managers and other reportables comprise the previous "noncommercial" column, while swap dealers and producers, merchants, processors and users were broken out of the commercial category.

 
                               Week Ended          Previous 
                                Feb. 22              Week 
NYMEX GAS FUTURES ONLY 
Long 
    Producers/Users               66,308            65,067 
    Swap Dealers                 272,049           269,484 
    Money Managers               102,366           106,867 
    Other Reportables             34,788            29,449 
Short 
    Producers/Users               91,611            97,765 
    Swap Dealers                  22,908            29,150 
    Money Managers               290,976           280,301 
    Other Reportables            103,461           102,851 
 
NYMEX GAS FUTURES AND OPTIONS COMBINED 
Long 
    Producers/Users               71,201            70,121 
    Swap Dealers                 239,352           236,909 
    Money Managers               132,435           137,684 
    Other Reportables             35,049            29,463 
Short 
    Producers/Users               94,784           100,297 
    Swap Dealers                  29,690            35,978 
    Money Managers               294,052           282,001 
    Other Reportables             95,412            95,916 
 

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110225-713233.html)