Hedge funds have never been this bullish on silver

On Monday, silver was drifting lower again following a scorcher of a week when the metal gained 6% to hit a 2016 high above $16.30.

Silver futures in New York for delivery in May, the most active contract, was last trading at $16.23 an ounce, still up just shy of 17% so far this year.

Silver is now outperforming gold as investors seek an alternative to gold following the yellow metal’s disappointing retreat from 13-month highs above $1,270 hit in March.

Speculators’ bullish positioning has reached 9,575 tonnes, the highest level since at least 2006, when government first started to collect the data

Silver is also benefitting from a rebound in industrial demand, particularly in China. More than half of silver usage is in industrial applications including alloys, electronics, photovoltaic and for the production of ethylene oxide.

Some ETF investors have been switching from gold to silver and silver and large-scale futures speculators or “managed money” investors such as hedge funds are also bullish on the outlook for the metal.

Hedge funds dramatically raised bullish bets on silver last week pushing the overall market into a record net long position.

According to the CFTC’s weekly Commitment of Traders data up to April 12 released on Friday speculators once again added to longs, building a bullish position of 9,575 tonnes, the highest level since at least 2006, when government first started to collect the data.

At the same time speculators cut their short positions which saw net longs positions grow to 7,680 tonnes, compared to a record net short of 1,610 tonnes recorded during the third quarter last year.

Mining.com
April 20, 2016