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 bet in favor of the US dollar and decreased their short positions against the American currency as of June 28th. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $12.44 billion against the other major currencies as of June 28th, according to a report published by Reuters. The data is a decrease from the total short position of $17.05 billion registered on June 21st, according to the CFTC COT 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 British pound sterling positions declining lower on the short side to the lowest position since July 2010 while Canadian dollar positions fell to their lowest level since August 2010.
EuroFX: Currency speculators increased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar after two straight weeks of declines. Euro futures positions rose to a total of 32,987 long contracts as of June 28th following a total of 29,771 long positions on June 21st.
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 continued to decline lower on the short side as of June 28th and fell for a second straight week. Pound contracts decreased to a total of 18,349 net short positions as of June 28th following a total of 11,360 short contracts on June 21st.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts declined after rising for three consecutive weeks to a total of 13,623 net long contracts reported on June 28th. This follows a total of 32,594 net long contracts on June 21st which marked the highest yen level since March.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions decreased for a fourth straight week as of June 28th. Franc positions fell to a total of 9,948 net long contracts following a net of 11,813 long contracts on June 21st.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions decreased last week and fell to the lowest level since August of 2010. CAD positions declined to a total of 1,863 short contracts on June 28th following a total of 2,204 long contracts on June 21st.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions fell on June 28th for the second consecutive week. AUD contracts decreased to a total net amount of 46,897 long contracts as of June 28th. AUD positions had totaled 54,571 net long contracts on June 21st.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions dipped lower last week for a second straight week. NZD contracts declined to a total of 18,364 long positions as of June 28th from a total of 18,849 long contracts on June 21st.
MXN: Mexican peso net long contracts rebounded slightly after declining for four straight weeks to the lowest level since September 2010. MXN contracts rose to 46,077 net long contracts as of June 28th from a total of 41,423 long contracts as of June 21st.
COT Data Summary as of June 28, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +32987
GBP: -18349
JPY: +13623
CHF: +9948
CAD: -1863
AUD: +46897
NZD: +18364
MXN: +46077
