Last week saw another rise in the amount of gold held through Exchange Traded Funds. It rose to a new record of 2,582 metric tonnes (MT) and has now increased by 165 MT since this current gold rally began in mid August.
During the same time leveraged investors through futures and options increased their net-long position by 390 MT to 759.8 MT, some 140 MT below the record from August 2011.
A risk of a deeper correction, especially following the rejection of the important USD 1,800 level, is now the near-term danger, as so many new long positions has been established during the last couple of months. As mentioned above some 555 MT has been added over a relatively short period and with futures traders in particularly being much quicker to react to adversity some nervousness will be witnessed over the coming sessions.
The overall direction for gold, however, still points towards higher prices so even a potential correction as deep as back to the 200 DMA, currently at USD 1,660 would most likely not change this perception.