Gold Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metals speculators continued to raise 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 211,711 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday January 16th. This was a weekly boost of 8,423 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 203,288 net contracts.
Speculative positions have risen for five straight weeks and have advanced to the highest level in seven weeks. The overall net bullish position has now gone back above the +200,000 contract level for a second straight week.
Gold Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -232,507 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decrease of -12,236 contracts from the total net of -220,271 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 $127.17 which was an advance of $2.44 from the previous close of $124.73, according to unofficial market data.