Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators sharply decreased their 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 31,426 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 5th. This was a weekly decline of -27,356 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 58,782 net contracts.
Speculative positions have fallen for three straight weeks (by a total of -37,747 contracts) and are now at the lowest level since August 1st when net positions totaled +30,759 contracts.
Silver Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -46,354 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 26,721 contracts from the total net of -73,075 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 $15.23 which was a decrease of $-0.68 from the previous close of $15.91, according to unofficial market data.