Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Gold Report
Gold positions gained slightly last week
GOLD: Gold speculators and large futures traders edged up their gold bullish bets very slightly last week to stem the decline of the previous seven 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 +54,281 contracts in the data reported through March 24th. This was a weekly change of +1,188 contracts from the previous week’s total of +53,093 net contracts that was registered on March 17th.
The weekly gain in the net speculator positions (+1,188 contracts) was due to a rise in the weekly bullish positions by 5,966 contracts that offset a uptick in the weekly bearish positions by 4,778 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday March 17th to Tuesday March 24th, the gold price rose sharply from approximately $1,148.20 to $1,191.40 per ounce, according to gold futures price data from investing.com.
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).