By CountingPips.com

Gold speculative positions fell last week to +286,447 contracts

GOLD Non-Commercial Positions:

Gold speculator and large futures traders cut back on their gold bullish positions last week for the fourth time out of the previous five weeks, 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 +286,447 contracts in the data reported through August 9th. This was a weekly change of -7,736 contracts from the previous week’s total of +294,183 net contracts that was registered on August 2nd.

Gold Commercial Positions:

In the commercial positions for gold on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) reduced their overall bearish positions to a net total position of -312,941 contracts through August 9th. This was a weekly change of +11,086 contracts from the total net position of -324,027 contracts on August 2nd.

GLD ETF:

Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday August 2nd to Tuesday August 9th, the price of the (GLD) Gold ETF , which tracks the gold spot price, rose from approximately $126.14 to $130.55, according to ETF price data of the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD).

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading 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