Open interest contracts from 1st Jan. 2008 to 11th Feb 2010 - Gold Contracts

The chart above indicates the weekly change in open interest for spot gold over a two year period with the first week of 2008 on the far right of the chart and with last week’s open interest on the far left.  Last week’s open interest  for gold was 466,905 contracts, having fallen from the previous week’s 480,860, the fourth fall in a row from the high of mid January where the short term top was 528,924.  The broader picture for the data clearly indicates the peak which approached 600k contracts in early 2008, down to a low of 261k towards the end of 2008.  Whilst the last four weeks is a relatively short time scale, it does indicate falling open interest coupled with falling prices which could suggest that the gold bulls are either offsetting or squaring off.  This combination is usually taken as a sign of strengthening as once these positions have been squared off then the recent decline in gold prices should come to an end as the longer term bullish trend resumes.   How far this will run in the future is difficult to forecast but the 600k upper limit at least provides us with a guide for future analysis.   Our technical analysis of the spot chart has supported the view that gold is currently in a longer term bullish trend.   One further point to note from the 2 year open interest chart is the first quarter of 2008 where we saw falling open interest against a backdrop of rising gold prices which is normally considered a bearish signal and indicative of a potential reversal in the market which indeed was the case in late March when prices collapsed dramatically.  At the time many market commentators were forecasting a long bull run for gold!!

Spot gold price - Weekly from 1st Jan 2008 to 17th Feb 2010

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