● Investment funds are speculative market participants that place
bets on LME contracts. Their net positioning ,measured by the difference
between the total number of long and short contracts in the market, is
an indication of sentiment.
● Ranking the current week’s positioning
as a percentile of the five-year positioning history puts into context
the conviction levels of their directional price views and how much
further a direction trend could potentially go. High positioning
percentiles could be symptoms of extreme fear or greed in the market – a
contrarian indicator for metal prices.
| Metal | Date | Latest | Week Before | +/- | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zinc | 2024-01-05 | 11,270 | 14,426 | -3,156 | 31.2 |
| Lead | 2024-01-05 | -5,822 | -3,818 | -2,003 | 3.5 |
| Copper | 2024-01-05 | 17,000 | 22,471 | -5,471 | 58.5 |
| Nickel | 2024-01-05 | -16,599 | -15,273 | -1,325 | 4.5 |
| Aluminum | 2024-01-05 | 10,013 | 9,817 | 196 | 42.6 |