Trying to rush around, but I have made corrections. First was a typo, second was me going by memory from an OPIS report earlier in the week. I will have to see if I still have it. But I do have yesterday's, and it says:

As has been the case for the better part of 2007, money flow continues to drive this rally. According to the most recent Commitments of Traders report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, speculative long positions on the NYMEX outnumbered short positions by 60,026 contracts for the week of Oct. 26.

So, I have changed to reflect the long to short ratio. That's probably what they said earlier in the week as well, but I didn't have that handy and I am trying to rush today. If I have time later, I will update to reflect that OPIS report from earlier in the week, if it indicates anything different.

That's all from me.

Edit: OK, found the OPIS in question. This is truly all from me:

Friday's data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission underscore the difference between mid-October 2007 and the same period a year ago. Data released by the CFTC on Friday show that large "non reportable" positions among long traders increased by nearly 8-million bbl for crude oil. Meanwhile, funds on the short side liquidated about 4.7-million bbl worth of contracts.

The result is a "net long" number that shows funds betting on price appreciation to the tune of a net position of 69.2-million bbl. Interestingly, this came on a day where Energy Secretary Bodman acknowledged that oil prices are no longer the province of energy companies but instead are within the trading rooms of New York, London, and other worldwide financial capitals.

The year-to-year difference in the bias is staggering. The CFTC report from October 13, 2006, showed speculative longs holding about 159-million bbl worth of crude, but speculative shorts were at nearly the exact same number. The net long position of a year ago was just 301,000 bbl. Hence, the big speculators have a net bet on higher prices that is about 230 times the net bet from one year ago.