Weekly Large Trader COT Report: Gold
Gold speculative positions edged up last week to +266,288 contracts
GOLD Non-Commercial Positions:
Gold speculator and large futures traders slightly edged their gold bullish positions higher last week marking the eighth rise out of the last nine 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 +266,288 contracts in the data reported through May 17th. This was a weekly change of +1,390 contracts from the previous week’s total of +264,898 net contracts that was registered on May 10th.
The tick up in the weekly net speculator positions (+1,390 net contracts) was due to a gain in the weekly bullish positions by 3,497 contracts that just overtook the gain in the weekly bearish positions by 2,107 contracts.
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) increased their overall bearish positions to a net total position of -290,243 contracts through May 17th. This was a weekly change of -5,247 contracts from the total net position of -284,996 contracts on May 10th.
GLD ETF:
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 10th to Tuesday May 17th, the price of the (GLD) Gold ETF (NYSE:GLD), which tracks the gold spot price, rose from approximately $120.98 to $122.22, 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).