Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metal speculator net positions in the Silver futures markets this week fell into a small short position, 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 Silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -1,508 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday February 27th. This was a weekly lowering of -6,828 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 5,320 net contracts.
The speculative position is in short territory for the first time since April of 2003 when silver spec positions spent four consecutive weeks in a short position. Silver spec sentiment has now fallen for four straight weeks and for six out of the past seven weeks.
Silver Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -14,463 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 4,982 contracts from the total net of -19,445 contracts reported the previous week.
SLV ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the iShares Silver ETF (NYSE:SLV), which tracks the price of silver, closed at approximately $15.48 which was a decrease of $-0.06 from the previous close of $15.54, according to unofficial market data.