The speculative fund sector has had an apparent influence on cotton and other commodity markets in recent years.  This has coincided with the rise of commodities as an asset class, in contrast to stocks or bonds.  One result (or accusation, anyway) is that commodity markets are driven more by outside financial markets than by commodity fundamentals, i.e., the financialization of commodity markets. However, there is no evidence of this to date in fairly rigorous statistical analyses of the cotton market. The specific role of the fund sector on cotton price volatility is discussed further here in an article written in September 2011 for the International Cotton Advisory Commission (used with permission).  During the first quarter of 2014, the funds were associated with about nine cents of the twelve-plus cent rally in cotton prices since November, 2013 (as discussed in this Southwest Farm Press column from April 18).   And now the proverbial rest of the story:  subsequent statistical modeling indicates that the hedge fund positioning was associated with about eleven cents worth of the 24-cent decline in cotton futures between May and September of 2014 (as discussed in this Southwest Farm Press column).

Our only public source of speculative positioning data in the cotton market is the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders report, which is released on Friday and reflects the open interest of speculators on the previous Tuesday. As such, the CFTC data are reported in contracts (roughly 100 bales per contract).  One unique thing about the CFTC report is that it distinguishes the trend-following hedge funds from the buy-and-hold index funds.

The aggregate net short position of hedge funds remains in place for the time being.  For the week ending Tuesday, May 23, the regular weekly snapshot of speculative positioning (through May 23) indicated long positioning: 6,860 new hedge fund longs and 11,936 fewer (covered) hedge fund shorts, week over week.  In addition, the index fund net long position grew by 2,652.