Gold Speculators Slightly Raised Bullish Bets This Past Week

New York (Mar 29)  Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions: Large precious metals speculators increased their bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets this week following four straight down 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 Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 288,366 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, March 24th. This was a weekly gain of 6,450 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 281,916 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) rising by 523 contracts (to a weekly total of 317,928 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) dropped by -5,927 contracts for the week (to a total of 29,562 contracts).

Gold speculative bets were stronger this week following four weeks of declines that had subtracted a total of -71,733 contracts from the existing bullish position. Despite the recent declines, the speculator gold position remains relatively strong compared to recent history as this week’s level of +288,366 contracts is well above the average weekly speculator position for all of 2019 which was +197,440 contracts.

Gold Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -311,823 contracts on the week. This was a weekly shortfall of -10,114 contracts from the total net of -301,709 contracts reported the previous week.

Gold Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Gold Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1660.80 which was a gain of $135.00 from the previous close of $1525.80, according to unofficial market data.

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