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The latest Gold COT report changes the setup from last week. Large speculators were no longer simply adding bullish exposure: they had already started cutting longs before Friday’s U.S. jobs report triggered another sharp move in XAU/USD.

The timing matters. COT data reflects positions as of Tuesday, September 1, while the stronger-than-expected payroll report arrived on Friday. That means the newly released report does not yet capture Friday’s liquidation. It does, however, show that some de-risking had already started before the macro shock.

# Speculative net longs fell by roughly 15,210 contracts

In the CFTC’s official COMEX Gold futures report, non-commercial positioning as of September 1 stood at:

  • 260,485 longs, down 16,674;
  • 32,361 shorts, down 1,464;
  • net long of roughly 228,124 contracts;
  • weekly net-long change of about -15,210 contracts;
  • open interest at 415,196, down 12,761.

The figures come from the official CFTC COMEX report.

The useful point is not to label the report simply bearish. Shorts also declined. The main change came from long reduction and lower open interest. That looks more like risk compression and profit-taking than a fresh wave of aggressive short building.

# Friday’s jobs shock happened after the COT cutoff

Reuters reported that U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 162,000 in August, far above the roughly 56,000 expected, while unemployment held at 4.1%. Treasury yields and the dollar moved higher and spot gold fell around 1.2% on Friday.

But none of that Friday reaction is visible in this COT snapshot because the reporting cutoff was Tuesday.

That makes next week’s report unusually important. It will help answer whether Friday’s sell-off was mostly a price reaction or whether speculative positioning was cut much more aggressively after the data.

Our earlier piece on the post-NFP XAU/USD sell-off covered the macro catalyst. This COT update adds the positioning layer: where risk was sitting before payrolls forced the market to reprice the Fed path.

# Stocktwits shows attention without outright euphoria

In this morning’s Stocktwits pulse, GLD had more than 96,000 watchers. It closed Friday at $406.77, down about 0.84%, while normalized sentiment was Bearish at 36/100 and message activity was in the normal range.

Those metrics are context, not trading signals. They suggest gold remains a live retail topic after a volatile week, but the discussion is not simply a one-way chase.

Community posts are opinions and should not be treated as facts. The useful information is the level of attention around gold, rates and the Fed.

# Net long is still substantial

Even after the weekly reduction, non-commercial traders remain heavily net long. That prevents a simplistic conclusion.

A smaller long position can reduce crowding risk. But if yields continue rising and the dollar remains firm, remaining longs can still become a source of selling if another macro surprise hits.

The more useful questions are:

  • Can gold stabilize after the payroll shock?
  • Do Treasury yields confirm a lasting Fed repricing?
  • Does the next CPI report reinforce or challenge higher-rate expectations?
  • Does next week’s COT show another wave of long liquidation or a stabilization?

# The next XAU/USD test is inflation

After a strong labor report, U.S. CPI and PPI matter even more ahead of the Fed’s September 15-16 meeting.

For XAU/USD, a combination of higher yields, a stronger dollar and another decline in speculative longs would make the near-term backdrop more fragile. If yields stop rising and positioning stabilizes, the market may start to show that a meaningful part of the de-risking has already happened.

The COT is not a BUY or SELL button. Its value is in separating positioning, macro catalyst and price structure. Disciply’s Risk Calculator can translate stop distance and maximum loss into position size, while the Trading Journal can record whether a decision came from COT positioning, a macro release or a confirmed price setup.

The new report leaves one clear takeaway: speculators had already reduced gold exposure before NFP. The next question is how much further that liquidation went after Friday.

Educational and informational content only. This is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument.