Hedge funds dumped bullish bets on gold and increased their short positions last week on the back of August’s surprising inflation figures, according to a report by Kitco News.
The report cites last week’s trade data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as revealing that hedge funds have now adopted a bearish position on gold for the fifth straight week. Speculative interest in the precious metal has only worsened as traders prepare for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates another 75 basis points and signal a further commitment to their aggressive monetary policy stance.
The CFTC’s disaggregated Commitments of Traders report for the week ending 13 Sept showed that money-managed speculative gross long positions in Comex gold futures fell by 5,542 contracts to 80,300. At the same time, short positions rose by 5,833 contracts to 98,637.
Gold’s net short positioning dropped to 18,337 contracts, more than double from the previous week.
