Silver Speculators Trim Net Bullish Positions For 1st Time In 4 Weeks

Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report

Silver speculative positions dipped last week

Silver Futures (CMX):

Silver speculators and large futures traders slightly edged their silver bullish bets lower last week after pushing bets higher for the previous three straight weeks, 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 +50,981 contracts in the data reported through May 26th. This was a weekly change of -299 contracts from the previous week’s total of +51,280 net contracts that were registered on May 19th.

The dip in the net speculator positions was due to a decline in the weekly bullish positions by -1,579 contracts, which overtook a smaller decrease in the weekly bearish positions by -1,280 contracts to total the weekly net change of -299 contracts.

Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 19th to Tuesday May 26th, the silver price declined from approximately $17.07 to $16.74, according to silver futures price data from investing.com.

Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, categorized as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, edged slightly higher last week after declining for the past four weeks to a net total position of -61,502 contracts through May 26th. This is a weekly change of +983 contracts from the total net of -62,485 contracts on May 19th.

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).