By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators cut their euro short positions for the second straight week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were net short the euro against the U.S. dollar by -9,644 contracts as of September 14th. This is a decrease of over 14,000 short contracts after speculators were net short the euro by -23,699 contracts on September 7th.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) 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. Open interest is the number of open contracts that have not been closed by a transaction or by delivery.
The euro and the British pound sterling were the major currencies on the short side against the dollar last week in the CME futures market while the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Mexican peso all continued to have a net long amount of contracts.
The British pound sterling short positions fell to -9,127 as of September 14th after being short on September 7th by -16,068 positions. Pound sterling short positions had increased for two straight weeks before a turnaround in the latest data.
The Japanese yen net long contracts edged lower last week to 47,642 from 52,183 net long contracts reported on September 7th. Yen positions have continued to stayed above the 47,000 level for the past six weeks.
The Canadian dollar positions rose for a second consecutive week to a net of 17,695 contracts after totaling just 452 net longs on September 7th.
Swiss franc long positions fell after gains for four straight weeks to 14,236 long contracts as of September 14th after 16,627 long contracts the week prior.
The Australian dollar positions edged very slightly lower to a net amount of 56,669 long contracts as of September 14th from 56,966 long contracts on September 7th.
New Zealand dollar futures positions jumped higher to a total of 16,839 long contracts after a total of 9,377 long contracts and increased for a second consecutive week.
Mexican peso long contracts edged higher as of September 14th after four straight weeks of decline to 14,957 total long positions from for 14,064 longs the week prior.
COT Data Summary as of September 14th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: -9,644 short contracts from -23,699 shorts on September 7th
British pound sterling: -9127 short contracts from -16,068 shorts
Australian dollar: 56,669 long contracts from 56,966 longs
Canadian dollar: 17,695 long contracts from 452 longs
Japanese yen: 47,642 long contracts from 52,183 longs
Mexican peso: 14,957 long contracts from 14,064 longs
New Zealand dollar: 16,839 long contracts from 9,377 longs
Swiss franc: 14,236 long contracts from 16,627 longs
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
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