Silver Speculators Lowered Bets Into Bearish Territory

Silver COT Futures Large Trader Positions

Silver Non-Commercial Speculator Positions

Large precious metals speculators dropped their bets back into a bearish position in the Silver 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 Silver futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -957 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, May 7th. This was a weekly lowering of -3,093 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 2,136 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) growing by 226 contracts to a weekly total of 77,346 contracts compared to the gross bearish position (shorts) which increased by 3,319 contracts for the week to a total of 78,303 contracts.

The net speculative position dipped back into a bearish position after a small rise into a bullish level last week. This was the second time in the past three weeks that bets having fallen into bearish territory.

Speculator sentiment has declined quickly after having spent nineteen straight weeks in the bullish territory from December 11th through April 16th. The net position had reached a high of +58,313 contracts as recently as February 26th.

Silver Commercial Positions

The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -16,659 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 4,701 contracts from the total net of -21,360 contracts reported the previous week.

Silver COT Futures Large Trader Positions

Silver Futures

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Silver Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1492.60 which was a shortfall of $-5.80 from the previous close of $1498.40, according to unofficial market data.

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