Meanwhile, the trade added just 819 contracts on the long side and now owns 9.9 mio bales, most of which belong to index funds. Trade shorts bought back 1'199 contracts, which reduced their still very substantial outright short position to 16.5 mio bales.
The CFTC report, which is more complete because it also takes options into account, confirms that specs have cut their involvement in the cotton market over the last couple of weeks.
Interestingly, if we compare the latest CFTC report of July 24 to the one of May 15, when the market traded at contract lows, we notice that spec shorts (as listed in the 'non-commercial' and 'non-reportable' categories) currently own just about 2.3 mio bales in outright shorts, down from 8.5 mio bales in May. Spec longs on the other hand now hold 8.7 mio bales, up from 7.3 mio bales in May.
Outright trade longs have more or less maintained their position over the last 10 weeks, as they currently own 7.0 mio bales, up just 0.2 mio bales since May. The biggest change among all categories happened in trade shorts, which increased their outright short position in futures and options to 22.5 mio bales, up from 15.3 mio bales on May 15.
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