Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators decreased their existing bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets this 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 296,838 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 27th. This was a weekly decline of -3,155 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 299,993 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) advancing by 10,315 contracts (to a weekly total of 362,609 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) increased by a larger amount of 13,470 contracts for the week (to a total of 65,771 contracts).
Gold positions edged very slightly lower for the second time in the past three weeks. Despite the pull back, speculator sentiment has been on fire for gold over the past few months as bullish bets have risen by a total of +210,150 contracts just since June 4th. The current bullish standing (+296,838 contracts) remains very close to the +300,000 net contract level which has not been reached since September 6th of 2016 (a span of 155 weeks).
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -333,806 contracts on the week. This was a weekly gain of 2,444 contracts from the total net of -336,250 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 $1551.80 which was an increase of $36.10 from the previous close of $1515.70, according to unofficial market data.