By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators increased their bets for the euro against the dollar for a third consecutive week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were net long the euro against the U.S. dollar by 5,097 contracts as of September 21st following net positioning of -9,644 contracts on September 14th. This is the first time contracts have been in positive territory for the euro since early December 2009 when net euro contracts were positive by 22,151.
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 British pound sterling was the only major currency on the short side against the dollar last week in the CME futures market while the euro, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Mexican peso had a net positive amount of contracts.
The British pound sterling short positions edged to -8,989 as of September 21st after being short on September 14th by -9,127 positions. This is the second straight week of improvement for the British pound future positions.
The Japanese yen net long contracts dropped lower last week to 23,100 as of September 21st from 47,642 net long contracts reported on September 14th. Yen positions had stayed above the 47,000 level for six weeks before Friday’s decline as many speculators may have decreased their yen long positions due to the Bank of Japan’s currency intervention.
The Canadian dollar positions rose for a third consecutive week and jumped to a net total of 29,815 contracts after totaling 17,695 net longs on September 14th.
Swiss franc long positions edged slightly higher to 14,462 long contracts as of September 21st after totaling a net of 14,236 long contracts on September 14th.
The Australian dollar positions shot up to their highest level since April against the dollar to a net amount of 64,324 long contracts as of September 21st from 56,669 long contracts on September 14th.
New Zealand dollar futures positions continued to increase higher to a total of 18,408 long contracts after a total of 16,839 long contracts and rose for a third consecutive week.
Mexican peso long contracts advanced higher as of September 21st to 26,376 net long positions from for 14,957 longs the week prior. Peso positions had declined for four straight weeks before the September 14th data.
COT Data Summary as of September 21st, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: +5,097 contracts from -9644 contracts on September 14th
British pound sterling: -8,989 contracts from -9127 contracts
Australian dollar: +64,324 contracts from +56,669 contracts
Canadian dollar: +29,815 contracts from +17,695 contracts
Japanese yen: +23,100 contracts from +47,642 contracts
Mexican peso: +14,957 contracts from +14,064 contracts
New Zealand dollar: +18,408 contracts from +16,839 contracts
Swiss franc: +14,462 contracts from +14,236 contracts
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
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