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 for a second straight week while continuing to raise bets for the Japanese yen. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, added to their long positions for the Japanese yen while decreasing their bets for the euro, British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso, according to data on May 17th.
This week’s notable changes were British pound sterling positions fell over to the short side for the first time since March while Australian dollar positions fell for a sixth straight week.
EuroFx: Currency speculators decreased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second consecutive week as of May 17th. Euro futures positions declined to a total of 41,645 long contracts following a total of 61,447 long positions on May 10th. Euro positions had marked the highest level since July 2007 on May 11th with 99,516.
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 for a third straight week as of May 17th and fell over to the short side for the first time since March 15th. Pound contracts fell to a total of 928 net short positions. This follows a decline the week before to a total of 18,118 long contracts on May 10.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts improved for the fourth consecutive week as yen positions increased to a total of 15,373 net long contracts reported on May 17th following a total of 13,054 net long contracts on May 10th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged lower for a second consecutive week. Franc positions fell to a total of 15,661 net long contracts following a net of 16,336 long contracts on May 10.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions declined lower for a fourth consecutive week to a total of 26,291 contracts as of May 17th. CAD net contracts had fallen to a total of 37,203 net long contracts on May 10.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined for the sixth straight week to a total net amount of 50,919 long contracts as of May 17th. AUD positions had totaled 60,321 net long contracts on May 10th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions declined after eight straight weeks of increases. NZD contracts decreased to a total of 12,624 long positions as of May 17th from a total of 13,714 long contracts on May 10.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts dipped for a fourth week after reaching the highest level in at least a year on April 19th. MXN contracts fell to 104,912 net long contracts as of May 17th from a total of 118,065 long contracts as of May 10th.
COT Data Summary as of May 17, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +41,645
GBP: -928
JPY: +15,373
CHF: +15,661
CAD: +26,291
AUD: +50,919
NZD: +12,624
MXN: +104,912
