Speculator Positions fall for sixth straight week
GOLD: Futures market traders and large speculators slightly edged their overall bullish bets higher in gold last week after six straight weeks of decline that brought levels to the lowest point in almost four months, 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 +64,870 contracts in the data reported through September 30th. This was a weekly change of +986 contracts from the previous week’s total of +63,884 net contracts that was registered on September 23rd.
The slight rise in the speculator positions was the first increase seen in seven weeks as speculator bullish sentiment had fallen to the lowest standing since June 10th when positions totaled +61,127 contracts.
The weekly increase in the net spec positions (+986) last week was due to a fall in the bearish positions by 293 contracts while the weekly bullish positions showed a small rise of 693 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday September 23rd to Tuesday September 30th, the gold price declined from approximately $1,222.00 to $1,211.60 per ounce, according to gold futures price data from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Gold Price |
| 08/26/2014 | 363608 | 172022 | 58853 | 113169 | -24807 | 1285.20 |
| 09/02/2014 | 371515 | 172522 | 75643 | 96879 | -16290 | 1265.00 |
| 09/09/2014 | 384341 | 177555 | 82414 | 95141 | -1738 | 1248.50 |
| 09/16/2014 | 386080 | 170749 | 98562 | 72187 | -22954 | 1236.70 |
| 09/23/2014 | 385788 | 170382 | 106498 | 63884 | -8303 | 1222.00 |
| 09/30/2014 | 379874 | 171075 | 106205 | 64870 | 986 | 1211.60 |
*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). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).