Weekly Large Trader COT Report: Gold
Gold speculative positions rose again last week to +213,807 contracts
Gold Non-Commercial Positions:
Gold speculator and large futures traders sharply boosted their gold bullish positions higher last week as gold positions have now gained for four straight weeks, 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 +213,807 contracts in the data reported through April 12th. This was a weekly change of +23,407 contracts from the previous week’s total of +190,400 net contracts that was registered on April 5th.
The rise in the weekly net speculator positions (+23,407 net contracts) was due to a gain in the weekly bullish positions by +22,560 contracts that combined with a decline in the weekly bearish positions by -847 contracts.
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) increased their overall bearish positions to a net total position of -231,787 contracts through April 12th. This was a weekly change of -24,542 contracts from the total net position of -207,245 contracts on April 5th.
GLD ETF:
Over the weekly reporting time frame, from Tuesday April 5th to Tuesday April 12th, the price of the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) ETF, which tracks the gold spot price, rose from approximately $117.66 to $120.05, according to the ETF's price data.
*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).