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 increased their overall US dollar long positions last week for the second consecutive week as speculators added to their euro short positions to the highest level on record.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $28.52 billion on May 15th from a total long position of $20.95 billion on May 8th, 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 speculator sentiment plummeted for the euro currency last week as euro net short positions or bets against the currency increased to 173,869 contracts on May 15th from the previous week’s total of 106,990 net short contracts on May 8th. This is the highest level for euro short positions on record surpassing the January 23rd level when short contracts totaled 171,347.
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 dipped slightly last week after rising for a four consecutive weeks and ascending to their highest level in over a year. British pound positions saw a total of 25,021 net long contracts on May 15th following a total of 25,339 net long contracts registered on May 8th. Before last week’s pullback, Pound positions were at the highest level since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 30,807.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a fifth consecutive week as Yen positions totaled 34,315 net short contracts reported on May 15th following a total of 41,093 net short contracts on May 8th. The improvement in the Japanese positions has coincided with the US Dollar falling against the yen in the spot price forex market as the pair currently trades under the 80.00 level.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions decreased sharply last week and fell for the second straight week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 26,694 net short contracts on May 15th following a total of 16,494 net short contracts as of May 8th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined last week for a second straight week after reaching the highest level of the year on May 1st. Canadian dollar positions fell to a total of 51,005 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 60,095 long contracts that were reported for May 8th. CAD positions had recently surpassed their previous highest level of the year and reached their best level since March of 2011 on May 1st at positive 70,223 contracts.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions dropped sharply for a second consecutive week. Aussie positions declined to a total net amount of 4,734 long contracts on May 15th after falling to 25,104 net long contracts as of May 8th. AUD speculative positions are now at the lowest level since at least 2009 and surpassed the previous low level of the last 12 months that was a total of 5,167 contracts on September 26th of 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for a fourth straight week as NZD contracts decreased to a total of 2,597 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 6,224 net long contracts on May 8th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand Kiwi contracts since January 2nd 2012.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts continued lower after edging down the previous week. Peso long positions decreased to a total of 14,445 net long speculative positions as of May 15th following a total of 36,928 long contracts that were reported for May 8th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of May 15, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -173869
GBP +25021
JPY -34315
CHF -26694
CAD +51005
AUD +4734
NZD +2597
MXN +14445
