Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report
Silver speculative positions rose for 3rd week last week
Silver Futures (CMX):
Silver speculators and large futures traders sharply raised their silver bullish bets last week and pushed their positions higher for a third straight week, 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 silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +51,280 contracts in the data reported through May 19th. This was a weekly change of +21,942 contracts from the previous week’s total of +29,338 net contracts that was registered on May 12th.
The gain in the net speculator positions was mostly the result of a decline in the weekly bearish positions by -19,073 contracts, while the weekly bullish positions rose by +2,869 contracts. The total weekly net change was +21,942 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 12th to Tuesday May 19th, the silver price rose from approximately $16.52 to $17.07, according to silver futures price data from investing.com.
Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, categorized as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, fell sharply last week and declined for a fourth week to a net total position of -62,485 contracts through May 19th. This is a weekly change of -24,382 contracts from the total net of -38,103 contracts on May 12th.
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).