Money managers again boost NYMEX natgas shorts-CFTC

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Money managers increased their net short natural gas futures positions by nearly 6,000 contracts in the week ending Nov. 3, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a report on Friday.

Money managers, which include commodity trading advisors, pool operators and hedge funds, held 125,737 net short futures, up from 119,842 net shorts the previous week.

Swap dealers increased their net long futures positions by 3,296 lots to 137,410, while the producer/merchant group trimmed net shorts to 8,573 contracts from 15,168 net shorts in the previous report.

Traders noted that despite their net short futures exposure, funds, or non-commercial traders, were still carrying a sizable net long position in Henry Hub natural gas swaps though they cut the total by 10,605 contracts to 517,041 in this report.

The Henry Hub natural gas swap contract is one-fourth the size of the Henry Hub futures contract, or 2,500 mmBtus, so funds are holding the futures equivalent of about 129,260 net longs. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by David Gregorio)