July 8th – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email

Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large precious metals speculators edged their bullish net positions slightly lower in the Silver futures markets last week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday (delayed due to July 4th holiday).

The non-commercial futures contracts of Silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 30,455 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday July 2nd. This was a weekly decline of -110 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 30,565 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) increasing by 2,166 contracts (to a weekly total of 99,739 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by 2,276 contracts for the week (to a total of 69,284 contracts).

The large speculator positions had gained very sharply for four straight weeks and by a total of +52,974 contracts over that period before last week’s slight pause. Silver’s recent bullish sentiment has spurred a dramatic turnaround from being bearish on June 4th with -8,443 net contracts.

The current standing for Silver speculative bets remains above the +30,000 net contract threshold for a second straight week, marking the first time since March bets have been this bullish.

Silver Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -52,063 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 1,489 contracts from the total net of -53,552 contracts reported the previous week.

Silver Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Silver Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1523.80 which was a drop of $-6.20 from the previous close of $1530.00, according to unofficial market data.

*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the most recent Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures 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).

Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

Article By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email