Gold Speculators Net Bullish Positions Fell Sharply Last Week

Gold Futures - Speculative positions dropped last week

GOLD Non-Commercial Positions:

Gold speculator and large futures trader positions fell sharply last week as gold bullish bets declined to the lowest level since March, 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 gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +72,440 contracts in the data reported through May 5th. This was a weekly change of -28,817 contracts from the previous week’s total of +101,257 net contracts that was registered on April 28th.

The results in the weekly net speculator positions (-28,817 net contracts) was due to a decrease in the weekly bullish positions by 16,824 contracts that combined with the weekly bearish positions that increased by 11,993 contracts. Net speculative positions are now at the lowest level since March 24th when positions equaled +54,281 contracts.

Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 28th to Tuesday May 5th, the gold price lowered from approximately $1,213.90 to $1,193.20 per ounce, according to gold futures price data from investing.com.

Gold Commercial Positions:

In the commercial positions for gold on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) trimmed their overall existing bearish positions to a net total position of -74,162 contracts through May 5th. This is a weekly change of +32,710 contracts from the total net of -106,872 contracts on April 28th.

Gold: Net Commercial Positions

Large Trader Non-Commercial Gold Positions

*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).