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 increased their short positions of the US dollar against the other major currencies last week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $35.01 billion against other major currencies as of May 3rd. The data is a rise from the total short position of $27.75 billion on April 26th, according to the CFTC data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
This week’s notable changes were euro positions increasing to the highest level since July 2007 while Japanese yen positions continued to improve and were short by 18,819 contracts.
EuroFx: Currency speculators increased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second straight week to their highest level since July 2007. Futures positions in the euro rose to a net total of 99,516 long positions as of May 3rd following a total of 68,279 long positions on April 26th.
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 positions edged lower as of May 3rd to a total of 30,807 net long positions after rising the week before to a total of 33,583 long contracts on April 26th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts improved to a total of 18,819 net short contracts reported on May 3rd. This is from 36,997 short contracts on April 26th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions moved higher for a fourth straight week to a total of 18,381 net long contracts following a net of 17,841 long contracts on April 26th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions moved lower for a second consecutive week to a total of 54,041 contracts as of May 3rd after CAD net contracts had fallen to a total of 59,063 net long contracts on April 26th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined for the fourth straight week to a total net amount of 73,421 long contracts as of May 3rd. AUD positions had totaled 80,867 net long contracts on April 26th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions increased higher for a seventh consecutive week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 12,800 long positions as of May 3rd from a total of 11,457 long contracts on April 26th.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts dipped for a second week after reaching the highest level in at least a year. MXN contracts fell to 124,260 net long contracts as of May 3rd from a total of 131,806 long contracts as of April 26th.
COT Data Summary as of May 3, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +99516
GBP: +30807
JPY: -18819
CHF: +18381
CAD: +54041
AUD: +73421
NZD: +12800
MXN: +124260
Further COT Resources from around the web:
