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 against the US dollar for the second consecutive week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $22.98 billion against other major currencies as of June 7th, according to Reuters. The data is a rise from the total short position of $15.73 billion on May 31st, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian will dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
This week’s notable changes were Euro positions increasing to their highest level since May 10th while Japanese yen positions rose over to the long side and to their highest level since late March.
EuroFx: Currency speculators boosted their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second straight week as of June 7th. Euro futures positions rose to a total of 51,836 long contracts following a total of 21,970 long positions on May 31st.
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 were about unchanged after an improvement last week. Pound contracts edged lower to a total of 1,700 net short positions as of June 7th following a total of 1,829 short contracts on May 31st.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts increased after two straight weeks of declines. Yen positions rose to a total of 17,631 net long contracts reported on June 7 following a total of 1,648 net long contracts on May 31st.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions decreased as of June 7th after increasing the week previous. Franc positions fell to a total of 16,865 net long contracts following a net of 21,119 long contracts on May 31st.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions fell to their lowest level since September of 2010 last week. CAD positions decreased to a total of 13,522 long contracts on June 7th following a total of 26,402 long contracts on May 31st.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions rose higher for a third consecutive week. AUD contracts increased to a total net amount of 65,205 long contracts as of June 7th. AUD positions had totaled 60,015 net long contracts on May 31st.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions rose for a third consecutive week to the highest level since early December. NZD contracts advanced to a total of 16,004 long positions as of June 7th from a total of 15,724 long contracts on May 31st.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts decreased for a second straight week and fell to the lowest level since March 29th. MXN contracts fell to 90,198 net long contracts as of June 7th from a total of 108,268 long contracts as of May 31st.
COT Data Summary as of June 7, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +51836
GBP: -1750
JPY: 17631
CHF: +16865
CAD: +13522
AUD: +65205
NZD: +16004
MXN: +90198
