By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators continued to cut their short bets of the US dollar against the other major currencies and are now short the British pound sterling. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $8.55 billion against other major currencies as of November 30th. This is down from a total short position of $9.74 billion on November 23rd, according to data published by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc. Speculators have now raised their bets in favor of the dollar for four straight weeks.
On an individual currency basis, speculators added to their long positions for the Japanese yen and cut shorts just slightly for the euro while decreasing positions in the British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar compared to the week before.
EuroFx: Currency specs were now short the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second straight week by 7,248 contracts as of November 30th. This is slightly less than net short positions of 8,293 contracts on November 23rd.
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.
GBP: The British pound sterling positions turned over to the short side for the first time since September 28th with 4,864 short net contracts as of November 30th. This is a decline from 10,197 long contracts on November 23rd and marks a second straight weekly decline.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long contracts increased for a second week to 30,006 long contracts as of November 30th from 27,192 net long contracts reported on November 23rd.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged slightly lower to a total of 7,824 long contracts as of November 30th after totaling a net of 8,511 long contracts on November 23rd.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions dipped for a second straight week as of November 30th. CAD long positions registered 19,155 contracts after totaling 22,499 net longs on November 23rd.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions decreased lower for the ninth straight week after reaching their highest level since April on September 28th. AUD contracts declined to a net amount of 26,643 long contracts as of November 30th from 28,471 long contracts on November 23rd.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions declined for a second straight week as of November 30th. NZD long positions fell to a total of 18,445 long contracts after a total of 21,069 long contracts the week before.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts edged lower as of November 30th to 78,906 net long positions from 87,246 longs the week prior. The latest data is the second straight week of decreases for the Mexican peso speculative positions.
COT Data Summary as of November 30th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: -7,248 contracts
British pound sterling: -4,864 contracts
Australian dollar: +26,643 contracts
Canadian dollar: +19,155 contracts
Japanese yen: +30,006 contracts
Mexican peso: +78,906 contracts
New Zealand dollar: +18,445 contracts
Swiss franc: +7,824 contracts
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
Further COT Resources from around the web:
