Gold Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders increased their net positions in the gold futures markets last week for a fifth consecutive week and to the highest level in over five months, 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 195,768 contracts in the data reported through April 18th. This was a weekly gain of 23,102 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 172,666 net contracts.
Speculative positions in gold have risen by over 89,000 contracts in just the past five weeks and are now at their best level since November 8th when net positions totaled 217,238 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 -211,064 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -23,700 contracts from the total net of -187,364 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 $122.82 which was a rise of $1.63 from the previous close of $121.19, 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
