Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metals speculators lifted their bullish 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 113,795 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 26th. This was a weekly increase of 6,727 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 107,068 net contracts.
The gold speculative position had taken two huge declines over the previous two weeks (weekly drops of -51,088 and -66,261 contracts, respectively) before this week’s slight turnaround. The speculative gold position has remained above the +100,000 contract level for twenty-one straight weeks.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -128,217 contracts on the week. This was a weekly shortfall of -8,754 contracts from the total net of -119,463 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 $119.82 which was an uptick of $1.67 from the previous close of $118.15, according to unofficial market data.