CFTC PRECIOUS METALS: Funds Add To Gold, Cut Silver Holdings

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Large speculative investors, including hedge funds, bumped up their net long position in Comex gold futures and options in the week ended March 1, according to data released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This is the fourth consecutive week that managed money funds added to their net long position in gold.

Traders in the category added 16,058 new long lots, or bets prices will rise, and sold 1,903 existing short lots, or bets prices will fall. This took the net long position to 201,084, from 182,739 last week. The net long position is the difference between the number of long and short positions held by traders in the category.

The purchases came as gold futures headed to a fresh all-time record of $1,441.00 per troy ounce, set on March 2.

In silver, these tactical traders sold 479 previously bought positions and repurchased 222 short lots, or previously sold contracts. This took their net long position to 35,182, from 35,438 a week earlier.

Traders in the category reduced their silver holdings as silver prices marched higher on the Comex futures market.

In other precious metals, money managers increased their net long position in platinum to 25,754, from 25,039 a week earlier by adding 528 long positions and cutting 187 short positions.

In palladium, these traders reduced their net long position to 13,178 from 13,410 last week by cutting 28 long lots and adding 204 short lots.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110304-712012.html)