By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators cut back on their overall US dollar long positions last week while euro positions improved to their best level since November 15th.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, reduced their total US dollar long positions to $17.8 billion on April 3rd from a total long position of $19.58 billion on March 27th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators raised their sentiment for the euro currency as euro net short positions or bets against the currency fell to 79,480 contracts on April 3rd from the previous week’s total of 89,129 net short contracts. Euro contracts, although still negative, are at their best position since November 15th when short positions totaled 76,147 contracts.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.
GBP: British pound sterling positions improved last week for a third consecutive week and pound positions are at their best placement since August. British pound positions saw a total of 8,807 net short contracts on April 3rd following a total of 11,110 net short contracts registered on March 27th . British pound sterling positions continue to be on the short side but are at their best level since August 30th when positions equaled 444 long contracts.
JPY: The downtrend reversed very slightly last week in the Japanese yen speculative contracts as positions inched higher off of their lowest level since 2007. Yen positions edged up to a total of 65,108 net short contracts reported on April 3rd following a total of 67,622 net short contracts on March 27th.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions improved slightly last week after a decline the previous week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 14,676 net short contracts on April 3rd following a total of 15,096 net short contracts as of March 27th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions increased higher after declining the previous week. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 29,487 net long contracts as of March 27th following a total of 23,737 long contracts that were reported for March 27th. CAD positions on March 20th were at their highest position since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 54,041 before declining on March 27th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined after rebounding the previous week. Australian dollar positions decreased to a total net amount of 49,319 long contracts on April 3 after dropping to 59,574 net long contracts reported as of March 27th. The AUD speculative positions on March 20th reached their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions edged higher and broke a string of five consecutive weekly declines. NZD contracts rose to a total of 5,846 net long contracts as of April 3rd following a total of 3,984 net long contracts on March 27th. The March 27th level was the lowest level for New Zealand dollar contracts since January 3rd when contracts equaled 2,436 net long positions.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts edged slightly higher following a sharp increase the previous week. Peso long positions increased to a total of 84,503 net long speculative positions as of April 3rd following a total of 82,833 long contracts that were reported for March 27th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of April 3, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -79480
GBP -8807
JPY -65108
CHF -14676
CAD +29487
AUD +49319
NZD +5846
MXN +84503
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
