Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators lifted their bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets in February, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
This latest COT data is from the middle of February due to the government shutdown which suspended the releases for approximately a month. The CFTC is releasing data on Tuesdays and Fridays going forward until the data is back up to date.
The non-commercial futures contracts of Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 145,647 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday February 19th. This was a weekly increase of 40,773 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 104,874 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) increasing by 39,916 contracts to a weekly total of 254,086 contracts compared to the gross bearish position (shorts) which saw a lowering by -857 contracts for the week to a total of 108,439 contracts.
The Gold speculative position rose for the third time in four weeks through the February 19th data and pushed the overall net position to the highest level since April 17th of 2018. Gold speculators have now had a bullish overall position for the past fourteen weeks going back to November 20th.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -166,477 contracts on the week. This was a weekly drop of -40,366 contracts from the total net of -126,111 contracts reported the previous week.
Gold Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Gold Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1344.80 which was an uptick of $30.80 from the previous close of $1314.00, according to unofficial market data.