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Weekly CoT Update: Speculative Selling in Gold Proving Untimely

Weekly CoT Update: Speculative Selling in Gold Proving Untimely

What's on this page

CoT Highlights:

  • Large specs addition to gold short proving untimely
  • First test of resistance at 1235/40, then Dec ’15 t-line
  • Large spec profiles for major FX and markets

For a timelier look at sentiment in major currencies and markets, see the IG Client Sentiment page.

The most recently released CoT report showed more selling in gold by large speculators despite it stuck in a trading range, and is now proving to have been an untimely move. Otherwise this past week’s report wasn’t filled with any major shifts, just a continued theme of a generally bullish outlook for the US dollar.

Every Friday the CFTC releases a detailed report of traders’ positioning in the futures market as reported for the week ending on Tuesday. Outlined in the table below are key stats concerning the positioning of large speculators (i.e. hedge funds, CTAs, etc.). This group of traders largely employ trend-following strategies, and as such, their net long exposure typically increases in uptrends while net short positioning increases in downtrends. When analyzing the data, we take into consideration the direction of their position, magnitude of changes, as well as extremes.

Key stats: Net position, one-week change, and where the current position stands relative to the past 52 weeks.

CFTC CoT data table

Large specs addition to gold short proving untimely

Back in August large speculators turned net short gold for the first time since 2002, and despite the precious metal going into a tight trading range this group of traders continued to sell. The most recent round of hitting bids made it the 4th week in a row, adding by a net count of over 16k contracts.

Given the CoT reports show one-week position changes ending on Tuesday, the most recent maneuver is proving untimely with the $30 rally on Thursday and continued strength to start the week. Look for next week’s CoT report to reflect short-covering. The squeeze higher in the near-term has room up to 1235/40 before running into its first test of price resistance. On an aggressive move higher the underside of the December 2015 trend-line could get tested near 1260.

Gold Positioning Chart

gold cot positioning chart

Gold Daily Chart (Propelled higher out of range

gold daily chart, trading higher out of range

See what fundamental and technical drivers are at work in the recently released Q4 Trading Forecasts.

Large speculator profiles for major FX & markets:

US Dollar Index (DXY)

Euro

British Pound

Japanese Yen

Please add a description for the image.

Canadian Dollar

Swiss Franc

Australian Dollar

New Zealand Dollar

Gold

Silver

Copper

Crude Oil

S&P 500 (E-mini)

Resources for Forex & CFD Traders

Whether you are a new or experienced trader, we have several resources available to help you; indicator for tracking trader sentiment, quarterly trading forecasts, analytical and educational webinars held daily, trading guides to help you improve trading performance, and one specifically for those who are new to forex.

---Written by Paul Robinson, Market Analyst

You can follow Paul on Twitter at @PaulRobinsonFX

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

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