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CFTC: Speculative positioning as of February 1st

Source: Bloomberg
Combined speculative futures positions across sectors

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Speculative long futures rising by five percent.

 Last week hedge funds and money managers added five percent or 94,000 lots of futures to already
elevated long positions. All sectors apart from metals saw an increase.

 During the same time period investors added to their dollar short positions with the accumulated
dollar short on IMM futures now standing at USD 30 billion. This is getting close to last year's peak
short dollar position of -35.16 billion

 Energy: The long WTI crude position rose by 21k as spill over buying from the unrest in North Africa
and from Brent crude which broke above USD 100.

 Grains: Investors continue to add to speculative long positions in the grain sector which in terms of
futures lots now represents 56 percent of the total speculative position across all sectors. Last week
saw a very strong 35k increase in the soy complex while wheat (+4k) and corn (+16k) also rose.

 Softs: Panic buying of sugar ahead of cyclone Yaris triggered a 14k rise in sugar positions.

 Metals: Small reductions in gold and silver offset by rise in copper with the price on London Metal
Exchange reaching a new record high above USD 10,000 per metric tons.

 Background information: The Commitments of Traders is a report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
every Friday with data from the previous Tuesday. It comprises the holdings of participants in various U.S. futures
markets split into "commercial" and "non commercial" holdings. The non commercial or speculative holding are typically
institutional investors such as hedge funds and CTAs. The above chart tracks a total of 25 different commodities split into
sectors.

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Metals: CFTC Speculative positions in lots

Gold Silver
280.000 55.000

260.000 50.000

240.000 45.000

220.000 40.000

200.000 35.000

180.000 30.000

160.000 25.000

140.000 20.000

Platinum Copper
35.000 35.000

30.000
30.000
25.000
25.000 20.000

20.000 15.000

10.000
15.000
5.000

10.000 -

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Energy: CFTC Speculative positions in lots

WTI Crude (NYM+ICE) Natural Gas


250.000 -130.000

200.000 -150.000

150.000 -170.000

100.000 -190.000

50.000 -210.000

- -230.000

Heating Oil Gasoline


50.000
90.000
40.000 80.000
30.000 70.000

20.000 60.000
50.000
10.000
40.000
- 30.000
-10.000 20.000
10.000
-20.000

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Softs: CFTC Speculative positions in lots

Sugar Coffee
200.000
50.000
180.000
40.000
160.000
30.000
140.000
20.000
120.000
10.000
100.000
-
80.000

Cocoa Orange Juice


40.000 18.000

30.000 16.000

14.000
20.000
12.000
10.000
10.000
- 8.000

-10.000 6.000

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Misc: CFTC Speculative positions in lots

Cotton Feeder cattle


60.000 20.000

50.000 15.000
40.000
10.000
30.000
5.000
20.000

10.000 -

- -5.000

Live Cattle
120.000

100.000

80.000

60.000

40.000

20.000

-20.000

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Grains: CFTC Speculative positions in lots

Soybeans Wheat (CBT+KCB+MGE) Corn


600.000

500.000

400.000

300.000

200.000

100.000

-100.000
23/02/10 23/03/10 23/04/10 23/05/10 23/06/10 23/07/10 23/08/10 23/09/10 23/10/10 23/11/10 23/12/10 23/01/11

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