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 for a fifth consecutive week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $8.42 billion against other major currencies as of December 7th. This is down from a total short position of $8.55 billion on November 30th, 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.
On an individual currency basis, speculators added to their long positions for the Australian dollar, Swiss franc and the Canadian dollar while decreasing positions in the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Mexican peso and the New Zealand dollar compared to the week before.
EuroFx: Currency specs increased their shorts of the euro against the U.S. dollar to 15,290 short contracts as of December 7th. This is approximately double the short positions on November 30th which saw 7,248 short contracts.
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 fell for the third straight week with 12,920 short net contracts as of December 7th. This is a decline from 4,864 short contracts on November 30th and the second straight week speculators have been short the pound.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long contracts decreased to 23,288 long contracts as of December 7th from 30,006 net long contracts reported on November 30th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged slightly higher to a total of 8,987 long contracts as of December 7th after totaling a net of 7,824 long contracts on November 30th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions increased as of December 7th. CAD long positions registered 33,722 contracts after totaling 19,155 net longs on November 30th.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions reversed and advanced higher following nine straight weeks of declining positions. AUD contracts increased to a net amount of 43,352 long contracts as of December 7th from 26,643 long contracts on November 30th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions declined for a third straight week as of December 7th. NZD long positions fell to a total of 18,261 long contracts after a total of 18,445 long contracts the week before.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts dropped lower as of December 7th to 59,482 net long positions from 78,906 longs the week prior. The latest data is the third straight week of decreases for the Mexican peso speculative positions.
COT Data Summary as of December 7th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: -15,290 contracts
British pound sterling: -12,920 contracts
Australian dollar: +43,352 contracts
Canadian dollar: +33,722 contracts
Japanese yen: +23,288 contracts
Mexican peso: +59,482 contracts
New Zealand dollar: +18,261 contracts
Swiss franc: +8,987 contracts
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
Further COT Resources from around the web:
