Gold Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders boosted their net positions in the gold futures markets last week following eight consecutive weekly declines, 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 Comex gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 109,482 contracts in the data reported through January 10th. This was a weekly gain of 12,932 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 96,550 net contracts.
Gold speculative positions had been practically in free fall going from +217,238 net contracts on November 8th 2016 to +96,550 net contracts on January 3rd before last week’s turnaround.
Gold Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -125,816 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -8,204 contracts from the total net of -117,612 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the GLD ETF, which tracks the price of gold, closed at approximately $113.15 which was a rise of $2.68 from the previous close of $110.47, according to ETF market data.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous 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
