Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for July 27
UPDATE -1: Adds commentary, charts for gold DCOT at end.
HOUSTON -- This week’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disaggregated commitments of traders (DCOT) report was released at 15:30 ET Friday. Our recap of the changes in weekly positioning by the disaggregated trader classes, as compiled by the CFTC, is just below.
(DCOT Table for Friday, July 27, 2012, for data as of the close on Tuesday, July 24. Source CFTC for COT data, Cash Market for gold and silver.)
In the DCOT table above a net short position shows as a negative figure in red. A net long position shows in black. In the Change column, a negative number indicates either an increase to an existing net short position or a reduction of a net long position. A black figure in the Change column indicates an increase to an existing long position or a reduction of an existing net short position. The way to think of it is that black figures in the Change column are traders getting “longer” and red figures are traders getting less long or shorter.
All of the trader’s positions are calculated net of spreading contracts as of the Tuesday disaggregated COT report.
Vultures, (Got Gold Report Subscribers) please note that updates to our linked technical charts, including our comments about the COT reports and the week’s technical changes, should be completed by the usual time on Sunday (18:00 ET).
As a reminder, the linked charts for gold, silver, mining shares indexes and important ratios are located in the subscriber pages. In addition Vultures have access anytime to all 30-something Vulture Bargain (VB) and Vulture Bargain Candidates of Interest (VBCI) tracking charts – the small resource-related companies that we attempt to game here at Got Gold Report. Continue to look for new commentary directly in the charts often.
UPDATE 1. Edit at 15:50 CT. Worthy of mention: Traders classed by the CFTC as Other Reportables reported their highest net long position for gold futures in the history of the disaggregated commitments of traders report data (back to 2006). The Other Reportables showed a net long position of 53,168 contracts as of July 24. The previous high was in the December 7, 2010 report when they reported holding 52,994 lots net long with gold the n near $1,401. (See chart below.)
Traders classed as Managed Money reported a net reduction of their net long position of a large 21,547 contracts to a low 59,809 lots net long gold. That is the lowest net long position for the Funds since December 9, 2008 (during the 2008 panic), when they reported holding 57,835 lots net long then with gold near $776 (chart below).
Swap Dealer traders returned to modestly net long this week (by 1,426 contracts), flipping from last week’s showing of 618 lots net short.
We will have more in the GGR subscriber charts this weekend, including the very large reduction in net short positioning by the large commercial traders in the legacy COT report for gold despite the metal being nearly flat and important data on the changes in the COT for silver futures, including the fact that Managed Money traders reported a new record high short position for silver futures (17,575 lots short against 20,590 long) with silver a small 36-cents lower for the COT week.
There is more than meets the eye with these data, however -- a "lot" more. Gold and silver are poised at the very edge of a zone which could trigger explosive short covering for one thing, and the trading which occurred after the Tuesday COT cutoff suggests quite a bull-bear battle is already underway.
