Gold Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators reduced their net bullish positions in the gold futures markets last week for a second consecutive 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 Comex gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 106,038 contracts in the data reported through March 14th. This was a weekly drop of -27,647 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 133,685 net contracts.
Gold speculative positions have declined by over 27,000 contracts in each of the past two weeks and have now fallen to the lowest level since February 14th when net positions totaled 109,752 contracts.
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 -123,287 contracts last week. This is a weekly gain of 29,361 contracts from the total net of -152,648 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 $114.12 which was a decline of $-1.66 from the previous close of $115.78, according to ETF financial 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
