Silver Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculative positions in silver futures rebounded last week following five consecutive weeks of declines, 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 Comex silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 51,173 contracts in the data reported through May 23rd. This was a weekly advance of 8,169 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 43,004 net contracts.
Silver positions had ascended to a record high bullish position on April 11th before dropping sharply over the next five weeks until this week’s rebound. Positions are now over the +50,000 contract level after falling below this threshold last week.
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 -63,987 contracts last week. This was a weekly decline of -6,650 contracts from the total net of -57,337 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 $16.15 which was a gain of $0.22 from the previous close of $15.93, according to ETF financial market data.