Money managers increase NYMEX natgas shorts-CFTC

NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Money managers increased their net short natural gas futures positions by more than 17,000 contracts in the week ending Oct. 27, 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 119,842 net short futures, up from 102,461 net shorts the previous week.

Swap dealers increased their net long futures positions by 4,841 lots to 134,114, while the producer/merchant group trimmed net shorts to 15,168 contracts from 21,127 net shorts in the previous report.

For the week ended Oct. 27, total natural gas futures open interest, or the number of longs or shorts outstanding, fell 8,638 contracts to 722,597.

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 18,370 contracts to 527,646 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 131,912 net longs. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by David Gregorio)