Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators continued to reduce their net positions in the Gold 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 Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 191,385 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 24th. This was a weekly lowering of -9,339 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 200,724 net contracts.
Speculators have now decreased their positions in gold for five out of the last six weeks and spec positions have fallen below the +200,000 net contract level for the first time since August 15th.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -210,653 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 10,971 contracts from the total net of -221,624 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 $121.33 which was a shortfall of $-0.80 from the previous close of $122.13, according to unofficial market data.