GOLD & SILVER COT REPORT 5/10: COMMERCIALS NOW NET SHORT 72 MILLION OUNCES IN SILVER!

Gold & Silver COT Report 5/10/13:

Commercial longs added 18 contracts to their total and an additional 244 total shorts to end the week with 50.59% of all open interest, a minor decrease of 0.15% in their share of total open interest since last week, and now stand as a group at 72,280,000 ounces net short, which is a small increase of just over 1.1 million net short ounces from the previous week.

Large speculators added 114 contracts to their total longs covered a significant 1,347 net short contracts increasing their net long position to 68,255,000 ounces, a large increase in their net long position of just over 7.3 million ounces from the prior week.

Small speculators added 182 long contracts to their total and also picked up 1,417 short positions for a net long position of 4,025,000 ounces a huge decrease of over 6 million ounces net short from the prior week.

Silver was relatively quiet this past reporting period as commercials practically stood still while speculators made some small changes.

Large speculators took advantage of the prior Wednesday’s price drop of about $1 to cover 1,347 shorts and after price rebounded the small speculators took advantage by picking up 1,417 shorts betting price has not seen the bottom. It will be interesting to see if they sold today at the low for the week.

In gold, commercials bought heavy longs and shorts while the large specs added to their short side just as they have done the prior 3 weeks. Small speculators slightly increased their net short position.

The gold producer merchant significantly decreased their net short position. With the swap dealer holding a significant lead over the producer merchant in net short position, we probably have not seen close to the bottom yet.