Funds cut gold net long for a third week to 104,206 contracts; copper net long falls 22%

Managed-money traders reduced their bullish bets on gold and copper in the week to October 20, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's disaggregated Commitments of Traders data for futures.

What happened

Managed-money traders held 120,970 long and 16,764 short gold futures contracts on COMEX on October 20, a net long position of 104,206 contracts (computed). That was down from a net long of 107,089 on October 13, 110,987 on October 6 and 120,318 on September 29, a third straight weekly decline and a drop of 13.4% since September 29.

In copper on COMEX, the managed-money net long was 47,690 contracts, with 67,225 long and 19,535 short, against 61,058 a week earlier, 61,134 on October 6 and 78,058 on September 29. The net long fell 21.9% on the week and 38.9% over three weeks.

Natural gas and silver

In natural gas on NYMEX, managed money held 202,570 long and 359,979 short contracts, a net short of 157,409, against a net short of 126,481 on October 13, an increase of 24.5%. Silver's managed-money net long was 3,505 contracts, down from 5,619 a week earlier and 7,528 on October 6.

How to read the data

The CFTC's disaggregated report splits reportable traders into producers and merchants, swap dealers, managed money and other reportable categories, and counts contracts, not dollar values. The figures are as of Tuesday, October 20, and do not show later changes in positions.