Managed-money investors trimmed net long gold positions on US commodity exchange COMEX by 3.5% to 211,191 contracts for the week to May 10, but remain at 4.5-year highs, Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed Monday.
Net long positions in gold are down from 218,895 reported last week, and remain just below the highest level on record, of 228,824 reported in August 2011, data showed.
With each contract worth 100 oz, the current total represents around 660 mt of gold.
Strong investor support has helped gold climb around 20% since the start of January, with spot prices around $1,280/oz Monday morning.
That support can also be seen in increasing demand for gold-backed exchange-traded funds.
Having dipped in April, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, SPDR Gold Trust, showed inflows of 16.94 mt for the week ending Friday, after following additions of 30.05 mt the previous week.
Total additions for May are now up to 47 mt, and takes total assets held by the fund to around 851 mt, the largest level since November 2013, according data released by the company Monday.
Meanwhile, net long positions in silver were up 6.7% to a new record high of 72,940 contracts, according to CFTC data.
Platinum contracts were up 0.1% on the week to a one-year high of 24,035, palladium down 17% to 6,908 contracts.
