Gold Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders sharply increased their net positions in the gold futures markets last week for a third consecutive 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 gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 155,436 contracts in the data reported through April 4th. This was a weekly gain of 17,616 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 137,820 net contracts.
Last week’s gain was the third straight week with a rise of over +10,000 bullish bets and has brought the overall net bullish level to its highest standing since November 22nd when net positions equaled +167,085 contracts.
Gold Commercial Positions:
Meanwhile, the commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -171,016 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -18,902 contracts from the total net of -152,114 contracts reported the previous week.
Gold ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the GLD (NYSE:GLD) ETF, which tracks the price of gold, closed at approximately $119.62 which was a rise of $0.58 from the previous close of $119.04, according to ETF financial market data.