By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators increased their short bets of the US dollar against the other major currencies. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $9.46 billion against other major currencies as of December 14th. This is higher from than the total short position of $8.42 billion on December 7th, 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.
EuroFx: Currency specs decreased their shorts of the euro against the U.S. dollar to 10,304 short contracts as of December 14th. This is approximately 5,000 less than the short positions on December 7th which saw 15,290 euro 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 reversed three straight weeks of declines with 8,186 short net contracts as of December 14th. This is a change from 12,920 short contracts on December 7th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long contracts decreased for a second straight week to 12,735 long contracts as of December 14th from 23,288 net long contracts reported on December 7th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions rose higher for second week to a total of 10,716 long contracts as of December 14th after totaling a net of 8,987 long contracts on December 7th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions were basically unchanged as of December 14th. CAD long positions registered 33,396 contracts after totaling 33,722 net longs on December 7th.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions advanced higher for second consecutive week following nine straight weeks of declining positions. AUD contracts increased to a net amount of 53,778 long contracts as of December 14th from 43,352 long contracts on December 7th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions declined for a fourth straight week as of December 14th. NZD long positions fell to a total of 12,521 long contracts after a total of 18,261 long contracts the week before.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts increased higher as of December 14th to 77,168 net long positions from 59,482 longs the week prior. The latest data reverses three straight weeks of decreases for the Mexican peso speculative positions.
COT Data Summary as of December 14th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EuroFx: -10,304
British pound sterling: -8,186
Japanese yen: +12,735
Swiss franc: +10,716
Canadian dollar: +33,396
Australian dollar: +53,778
New Zealand dollar: +12,521
Mexican peso: +77,168
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
Further COT Resources from around the web:
