Crude Oil Prices Soar, Mostly Sealing the Fate of a Fourth Monthly Gain. Where to?
Crude Oil, WTI, Retail Trader Positioning, Technical Analysis – IGCS Commodities Update
- Crude oil prices all set for a 4th consecutive monthly gain?
- Still-bearish retail trader exposure offers a bullish outlook
- Prices just barely break above a key zone of resistance
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Crude oil prices rocketed higher on Wednesday, soaring 3.6 percent in the most aggressive day since early June. The commodity is on course for a 4th consecutive monthly gain. Meanwhile, retail traders continue increasing bearish exposure. This can be seen by looking at IG Client Sentiment, which tends to function as a contrarian indicator. Will this spell further gains for oil?
Crude Oil Sentiment Outlook – Bullish
According to IGCS, only about 30% of retail traders are net-long crude oil. Since the majority are biased to the downside, this continues to hint that prices may rise down the road. Meanwhile, upside bets have decreased by 10.3% and 16.32% compared to yesterday and last week, respectively. With that in mind, overall exposure and recent changes offer a stronger bullish contrarian trading outlook.
Change in | Longs | Shorts | OI |
Daily | -10% | 6% | 1% |
Weekly | -16% | 21% | 7% |
On the daily chart below, WTI has just barely closed above the 93.72 – 92.43 resistance zone from highs seen in November. That has opened the door to extending the uptrend since earlier this year, exposing the 100% Fibonacci extension level at 95.63. Just beyond that is the August 2022 high of 97.65, which may hold as key resistance.
But, note that there is a negative RSI divergence showing that upside momentum is fading. In the event of a turn lower, dropping through the 93.72 – 92.43 former resistance zone places the focus on the 20-day Moving Average. Just below that is the 61.8% extension at 88.75.
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Crude Oil Daily Chart
Chart Created in Trading View
— Written by Daniel Dubrovsky, Senior Strategist for DailyFX.com
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