Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Monday revealed that market players increased their bullish bets in the gold futures market for the fourth consecutive week in the week ending August 1.
According to the data, 70.8% of market players held long positions in gold last week, up from 67.6% a week earlier. A reading above 50% means that more than half of traders are holding long positions for that instrument.
Meanwhile, 38.2% held long positions in EUR/USD, down from 38.4% in the preceding week, while 54.7% of investors were long in GBP/USD, up from 45.6% a week earlier.
Elsewhere, 67.8% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, improving from 64.2% a week earlier, while 53.4% of investors were long USD/CHF, compared to 49.0% in the preceding week.
Amongst the commodity-linked currencies, 39.0% were long USD/CAD, down from 44.5% a week earlier, 60.3% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 56.1% in the preceding week, while 64.0% were long NZD/USD, up from 59.0% a week earlier.
Elsewhere, 37.3% of market participants held long positions in the S&P 500 last week, down from 37.9% in the previous week.
The Investing.com series of indexes is developed in-house. Each index measures overall exposure to major currency pairs, commodities and indexes, using data from futures exchanges and OTC providers on all long and short open positions.
A reading between 50%-70% is bullish for the instrument, a reading between 30% and 50% is bearish, a reading above 70% indicates overbought conditions and a reading below 30% indicates oversold conditions.