Gold Speculators Net Positions Go Bearish For 1st Time Since 2002
Zachary Storella | Aug 19, 2018 01:49AM ET
Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators continued to sharply cut back on their net positions in the Gold futures markets again this week to a new bearish level, 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 Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -3,688 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 14th. This was a weekly decline of -16,376 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 12,688 net contracts.
Gold speculator bets have declined for five consecutive weeks and by a total of -85,122 contracts over that time-frame. The spec position is now in an overall bearish standing for the first time since August 13th of 2002 which is almost sixteen years ago to the day. This recent decline has happened very rapidly as just ten weeks ago the speculative position stood at +120,240 net contracts.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -7,350 contracts on the week. This was a weekly boost of 18,259 contracts from the total net of -25,609 contracts reported the previous week.
GLD (NYSE:GLD) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the GLD ETF, which tracks the price of gold, closed at approximately $113.07 which was a shortfall of $-1.52 from the previous close of $114.59, according to unofficial market data.
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