Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators slightly trimmed their bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets this week and pushed speculative bets lower for a sixth 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 Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 60,138 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday July 18th. This was a weekly decline of -122 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 60,260 net contracts.
The gold speculative position has dropped by -144,327 net contracts in just the past six weeks alone but this week’s very small change may turn out to be a pause (and welcome sign for gold bulls) in the rate of decline of speculator sentiment.
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 -73,635 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 281 contracts from the total net of -73,916 contracts reported the previous week.
GLD (NYSE:GLD) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the GLD ETF, which tracks the price of gold, closed at approximately $118.11 which was an increase of $2.49 from the previous close of $115.62, according to unofficial market data.