Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metals speculators decreased their net positions in the Silver futures markets again 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 2,469 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 26th. This was a weekly decline of -7,445 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 9,914 net contracts.
Speculative positions have now fallen for five straight weeks and the overall standing is at the lowest level since June 3rd of 2014 when net positions equaled 766 contracts.
Silver Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -18,621 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 6,208 contracts from the total net of -24,829 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 $15.22 which was an advance of $0.36 from the previous close of $14.86, according to unofficial market data.