By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators trimmed their long positions of the Euro against the US dollar while continuing to raise bets against the Japanese yen. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, added to their long positions for the British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso while decreasing bets in the favor of the euro, Japanese yen and the Australian dollar as of April 19th.
This week’s notable changes were Japanese yen positions declining a bit lower for a fourth straight week to the lowest level in just about a year while Mexican peso positions rose for a fourth straight week and to their highest level in over a year.
EuroFx: Currency speculators decreased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar very slightly after increases for four consecutive weeks. Futures positions in the euro dipped to a net total of 62,195 long positions as of April 19th following a total of 64,985 long positions on April 12th.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) 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. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.
GBP: British pound sterling bets increased as of April 19th to a total of 30,175 net long positions after falling the week before to a total of 26,671 long contracts on April 12th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts edged lower for a fourth straight week. Yen contracts decreased to a total of 52,983 short contracts following a total of 52,877 net short contracts reported on April 12th. This is the lowest level for yen contracts since May 4,2010 when short contracts totaled 65,612.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions rose higher for a second consecutive week. Franc positions increased to a total of 17,374 net long contracts following a net of 14,657 long contracts on April 12th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions edged higher to a total of 65,035 contracts as of April 19th after CAD net contracts had declined to a total of 63,741 net long contracts on April 12th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions edged lower for a second consecutive week. AUD contracts totaled a net amount of 84,961 long contracts as of April 19th after AUD positions had totaled 90,651 net long contracts on April 12th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions increased higher for a fifth consecutive week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 9,339 long positions as of April 19th from a total of 6,336 long contracts on April 12th.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts continued to increase to a new high for the year at a total of 134,129 net long contracts on April 19th. MXN positions had increased the week before to a total of 124,846 long contracts as of April 12th.
COT Data Summary as of April 19, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +62,195
GBP: +30,175
JPY: -52,983
CHF: +17,374
CAD: +65,035
AUD: +84,961
NZD: +9,339
MXN: +134,129
Further COT Resources from around the web:
