LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Retail investors have begun to pile into oil attracted by its low price and are investing via exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have seen unprecedented inflows, U.S. bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N) said on Tuesday.
Investor positions or "length" in the oil market has climbed back towards levels seen last summer, when prices were headed towards a record peak of more than $147 a barrel.
"However, over this time period, we have seen a shift in the type of investor interest," Goldman Sachs said in its latest Energy Weekly.
"The most recent surge in investor interest in oil has been mostly concentrated in ETF instruments," it said. "We believe that this has come mostly from the retail and private banking sectors."
Exchange traded funds are securities which track the value of an underlying instrument such as gold or oil futures.
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSLR11236420090127