Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Gold Report
Gold positions up seven out of the last eight weeks
GOLD: Large futures traders and gold speculators pushed their overall bullish bets in gold higher for a fourth week last week and at the fastest pace since June, 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 +162,455 contracts in the data reported through January 20th. This was a weekly change of +32,229 contracts from the previous week’s total of +130,226 net contracts that was registered on January 13th.
The rise in the net speculator positions (+32,229 contracts) registered the largest weekly gain seen since June 24th 2014 and was due to a strong rise in the weekly bullish positions by +30,298 contracts combined with a decline in the gold bearish positions by -1,931 contracts.
Gold speculative positions have now risen seven out of the last eight weeks and surpassed their highest level of 2014 that was +150,021 contracts registered on July 8th.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday January 13th to Tuesday January 20th, the gold price increased from approximately $1,234.40 to $1,294.20 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).