Currency Speculators slightly reduced US Dollar bullish positions for 2nd week

January 21, 2017

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US Dollar net speculator positions slipped to $24.44 billion last week

The latest data for the weekly Commitment of Traders (COT) report, released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, showed that large traders and currency speculators slightly decreased their bullish bets for the US dollar last week for a second consecutive week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, had an overall US dollar long position totaling $24.44 billion as of Tuesday January 17th, according to the latest data from the CFTC and dollar amount calculations by Reuters. This was a weekly decline of $-0.51 billion from the $24.95 billion total long position that was registered the previous week, according to the Reuters calculation (totals of the US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc).

Despite falling for two straight weeks, the US dollar aggregate speculative level remains above the +$20 billion level for a twelfth straight week.

Weekly Speculator Contract Changes:

The individual major currencies that improved versus the US dollar last week were the Japanese yen (2,009 weekly change in contracts), Swiss franc (563 contracts), Canadian dollar (2,479 contracts), Australian dollar (8,693 contracts) and the New Zealand dollar (1,672 contracts).


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The currencies whose speculative bets declined last week against the dollar were the euro (-677 weekly change in contracts), British pound sterling (-411 contracts) and the Mexican peso (-1,545 contracts).

 

Table of Weekly Commercial Traders and Speculators Levels & Changes:

Currency Net Commercials Comms Weekly Chg Net Speculators Specs Weekly Chg
EuroFx 74577 1747 -66500 -677
GBP 77179 -880 -66242 -411
JPY 107213 -375 -77830 2009
CHF 26213 -2895 -13683 563
CAD 4856 -6469 -5456 2479
AUD 3372 -12671 4845 8693
NZD 12022 -1729 -12288 1672
MXN 73939 1667 -73321 -1545

 

This latest COT data is through Tuesday and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures markets. All currency positions are in direct relation to the US dollar where, for example, a bet for the euro is a bet that the euro will rise versus the dollar while a bet against the euro will be a bet that the dollar will gain versus the euro.

 

Weekly Charts: Large Trader Weekly Positions vs Price

EuroFX:

 

British Pound Sterling:

 

Japanese Yen:

 

Swiss Franc:

 

Canadian Dollar:

 

Australian Dollar:

 

New Zealand Dollar:

 

Mexican Peso:

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The charts overlay the forex closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.) See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.

Article by CountingPips.com

 

 

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