Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators slightly edged their net positions higher 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 658 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday May 15th. This was a weekly gain of 779 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -121 net contracts.
Speculative positions have improved for two consecutive weeks and had been in an bearish position for the previous two weeks before this week’s rise back into bullish territory. Overall, the net position has been in a bearish standing for seven out of the past ten weeks.
Silver Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -18,066 contracts on the week. This was a weekly fall of -989 contracts from the total net of -17,077 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 $15.33 which was a fall of $-0.18 from the previous close of $15.51, according to unofficial market data.