By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report
GOLD: Large futures market traders and speculators decreased their overall bullish bets in gold futures last week for the fourth straight week last week and to the lowest level since February, 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 Comex gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +79,292 contracts in the data reported through April 15th. This was a change of -9,307 contracts from the previous week’s total of +88,599 net contracts on April 8th.
Gold large speculator net positions have now declined for four consecutive weeks after reaching a 13-month high level on March 18th. The total gold net bullish position is currently at its lowest level since February 11th when net positions equaled +71,201 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 8th to Tuesday April 15th, the gold price fell from approximately $1,310.10 to $1,302.90 per ounce, according to gold futures price data from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Gold Price |
| 03/11/2014 | 415340 | 170482 | 51592 | 118890 | 3724 | 1346.70 |
| 03/18/2014 | 420626 | 183324 | 46510 | 136814 | 17924 | 1359.00 |
| 03/25/2014 | 398264 | 169083 | 51766 | 117317 | -19497 | 1311.00 |
| 04/01/2014 | 363451 | 158152 | 58007 | 100145 | -17172 | 1279.60 |
| 04/08/2014 | 365400 | 149693 | 61094 | 88599 | -11546 | 1310.10 |
| 04/15/2014 | 369577 | 147432 | 68140 | 79292 | -9307 | 1302.90 |
*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading 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).
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