Gold Speculators cut back on their bullish bets for 1st time in 3 weeks

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Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large precious metals speculators cut back on their bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets this week, 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 240,671 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 13th. This was a weekly decrease of -7,916 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 248,587 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) advancing by 6,064 contracts (to a weekly total of 326,986 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by a larger amount of 13,980 contracts for the week (to a total of 86,315 contracts).

Gold speculators trimmed their bullish positions this week for this first time in three weeks. Over the previous two weeks, the bullish position had risen by approximately +30,000 net contracts and brought the overall standing to the highest of the past ten weeks. Despite this week’s decline, the net standing has remained above the +240,000 contract level for the three straight weeks and the bullish position has now been at least +200,000 net contracts for seventy consecutive weeks, dating back to June of 2019.

Gold Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -284,655 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 3,813 contracts from the total net of -288,468 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 $1888.50 which was a shortfall of $-12.60 from the previous close of $1901.10, 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).

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