Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators continued to pare their bullish net positions in the Silver 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 Silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 9,376 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday July 18th. This was a weekly decrease of -4,629 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 14,005 net contracts.
Silver speculative positions have now fallen by -56,565 contracts over the past six weeks and the overall net position level has dropped to its lowest standing since August 4th 2015 when net positions totaled 8,405 contracts.
Silver Commercial Positions:
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 -21,914 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 2,653 contracts from the total net of -24,567 contracts reported the previous week.
iShares Silver (NYSE:SLV) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the SLV ishares ETF, which tracks the price of silver, closed at approximately $15.38 which was a gain of $0.39 from the previous close of $14.99, according to unofficial market data.