Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators cut back on their net positions in the Silver futures markets this week following a streak of eight weekly gains, 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 67,803 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday September 19th. This was a weekly decline of -7,184 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 74,987 net contracts.
Speculative bets had increased by over +65,000 net contracts in the previous eight weeks before this week’s coolling off of bullish bets.
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 -78,408 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 6,273 contracts from the total net of -84,681 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 $16.36 which was a decrease of $-0.53 from the previous close of $16.89, according to unofficial market data.