Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators sharply lifted 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 15,225 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday May 22nd. This was a weekly increase of 14,567 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 658 net contracts.
Speculative bets in favor of silver have risen for three straight weeks and positions are at the highest level since February 2nd when net positions totaled +16,540 contracts. Silver bets are now in positive territory after being in an overall short position for seven out of the previous eight weeks.
Silver Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -31,423 contracts on the week. This was a weekly loss of -13,357 contracts from the total net of -18,066 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 $15.58 which was a rise of $0.25 from the previous close of $15.33, according to unofficial market data.