Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment firms, increased their collective net short live cattle positions in the week ended Tuesday after four straight weeks of cutting their net long position.
The data comes from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report on Friday.
As of Tuesday, managed money was net short live cattle futures by 9,774 contracts, up 8,441, or 633.2%, from being short by 1,333 contracts the previous week when they went to being net short from being net long. The last time managed money held a net short live cattle position was more than three years ago.
At the same time, commercial traders, those who primarily are hedgers, decreased their net short live cattle position to its lowest in more than three years to 93,411 contracts. This was down 13,364 contracts, or 12.5%, from 106,775 the previous week.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new net long cattle position by liquidating 787 long positions, adding 7,654 short positions and putting on 4,920 spread positions. This left their position representing 15.5% of total long open interest, 18.2% of total short open interest and 21.1% of total spread open interest.
The CFTC also said commercial traders got to their new position by adding 6,939 long positions and covering 6,425 short positions, leaving them holding 13.5% of total long open interest and 39.7% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday was 356,642 contracts, up 13,082, or 3.81%, from 343,560 the previous Tuesday.
The CME Group also said the most-active Dec futures contract declined in value during the CFTC reporting week to settle Tuesday at $101.22 per cwt from $104.32 the week before. In between, it set a contract low of $98.20 on Monday.
FUNDS EXTEND SHORT CORN POSITION
During the CFTC reporting week, managed money extended its net short corn futures position by 19,667 contracts, or 15.9%, to 143,467 contracts from 123,800 the previous week. It was their eighth straight week of a march to the bottom from their latest high position of being net long by 178,732 contracts.
Meanwhile, commercial traders cut their net short position to 202,311 contracts from 245,477 the previous Tuesday. It was a decline of 43,166 contracts, or 17.6% and their eighth straight decline in their net short position since peaking on July 16 at 538,232 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new net long corn position by adding 7,304 long positions, 26,971 short positions and 10,221 spread positions. This left their position representing 10.6% of total long open interest, 19.4%^ of total short open interest and 10.8% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 30,354 long positions and covering 12,812 short positions, leaving them with 33.1% of total long open interest and 45.6% of total short open interest.