One of the hallmarks of the decline in gold prices from an all time high of $1920 in Sept 2011 (as the market collapsed by 26%) was the significant long liquidation of speculative positions by gold futures traders on the CME in New York.

Since then gold has steadily rallied - firstly breaching the important 200 day moving average which was then at $1644 and subsequently technical and psychological resistance around the $1700 level. And it has done this without any significant re-building of net long positions of the CME futures traders (see Reuters chart below).

By last Friday the Commitments of Traders reports suggests that futures traders are now at a net long of 126,937 contracts (a little under 400 tonnes). That is a gain of nearly 9% on the previous weeks position but still less than half the levels seen mid last year.