Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators continued to lift 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 38,851 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 15th. This was a weekly boost of 4,987 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 33,864 net contracts.
Speculative silver positions are now higher for a fourth straight week and the current standing is the best level since June 20th when net positions totaled +46,681 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 -48,088 contracts on the week. This was a weekly loss of -8,527 contracts from the total net of -39,561 contracts reported the previous week.
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 $15.74 which was an uptick of $0.18 from the previous close of $15.56, according to unofficial market data.