Gold Speculators sharply dropped their bets back into overall bearish position

November 17, 2018 – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email

Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large precious metals speculator sentiment took a hit this week and registered a new bearish net position in the Gold futures markets, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

The non-commercial futures contracts of Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -9,247 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday November 13th. This was a weekly reduction of -28,273 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 19,026 net contracts.

This week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position dropping by -725 contracts to a weekly total of 168,416 contracts while the gross bearish position which saw a sharp rise by 27,548 contracts for the week to a total of 177,663 contracts.

The gold speculative position is back in bearish territory after spending the previous four weeks in a bullish position and shows that gold sentiment has not turned a corner yet. Overall, the gold speculative net position has been in a bearish standing for ten out of the past fourteen weeks.

Gold Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -1,823 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 36,313 contracts from the total net of -38,136 contracts reported the previous week.

Gold Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Gold Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1201.40 which was a loss of $-24.90 from the previous close of $1226.30, according to unofficial market data.

*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the most recent Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

Article By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email