Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metals speculators sharply cut back on 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 173,329 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 5th. This was a weekly decrease of -51,088 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 224,417 net contracts.
Speculative positions had increased the previous two weeks before this week’s sharp decline which was the largest one week fall since May 24th 2016 (-59,656 contracts). The gold level is now at the lowest level since August 8th when net positions totaled +148,837 contracts.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -189,890 contracts on the week. This was a weekly gain of 56,651 contracts from the total net of -246,541 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 $120.32 which was a decrease of $-2.49 from the previous close of $122.81, according to unofficial market data.