“The net position would not be declining this much.”

I’ve seen at least two analysts comment on this

One was saying this means there is lots of room for people to enter the market on the long side – net open position today is considerably lower than it was the last time gold was pushing up to all-time highs

The other was suggesting that traders have become fed up with trying to trade a manipulated market and have moved on to other markets / venues – this disgust with a manipulated market explains the declining open position

As I was saying earlier, this is just interpretation of the data – the only fact we have is that open interest is declining

As participation in the market declines, isn’t the validity of the COT report lessened – fewer participants, more volatility, more easily manipulated, less reliable report?