Weekly Large Trader COT Report: Gold
Gold speculative positions fell last week to +206,632 contracts
GOLD Non-Commercial Positions:
Gold speculator and large futures traders sharply decreased their gold bullish positions last week to the lowest level in 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 +206,632 contracts in the data reported through May 24th. This was a weekly change of -59,656 contracts from the previous week’s total of +266,288 net contracts that was registered on May 17th.
The sharp drop in the weekly net speculator positions (-59,656 net contracts) was due to a decline in the weekly bullish positions by -49,482 contracts that combined with a gain in the weekly bearish positions by 10,174 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) cut their overall bearish positions to a net total position of -225,213 contracts through May 24th. This was a weekly change of +65,030 contracts from the total net position of -290,243 contracts on May 17th.
GLD ETF:
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 17th to Tuesday May 24th, the price of the (GLD) Gold ETF (NYSE:GLD), which tracks the gold spot price, fell from approximately $122.22 to $117.30, 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).