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 to their lowest level since January while staying overall bearish on the British pound sterling. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large money speculators, added to their positions in favor of the Japanese yen, British pound sterling, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar and the Swiss franc directly against the US dollar while decreasing their bets for the euro, according to data on July 12th.
This week’s notable changes were euro positions declining to the lowest level since January while New Zealand dollar positions continued to rise and increased to their highest level since November 2010.
EuroFX: Currency speculators rather sharply decreased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar last week to a total of 12,416 net long contracts as of July 12th. Euro futures positions had increased for two straight weeks and totaled 43,194 contracts on July 5th. Euro positions are now at their lowest point since January 18th when net long contracts equaled 4,109.
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 rebounded higher after touching their lowest level in over a year the previous week but remained on the short side of speculator totals. British pound contracts rose to a net short total of 24,801 on July 12th following a decline to a net short position of 31,669 contracts reported on July 5th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts improved for the second consecutive week as yen positions increased to a total of 20,288 net long contracts reported on July 12th. This follows a total of 14,327 net long contracts reported on July 5th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions increased higher after retreating for five consecutive weeks. Franc positions rose to a total of 8,081 net long contracts following a net of 5,291 long contracts on July 5th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions rose higher for a second consecutive week to a total of 15,334 contracts as of July 12th. CAD net contracts had risen to a total of 6,821 net long contracts on July 5th after falling over to a net short total position on June 11th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions advanced for the second straight week to a total net amount of 67,623 long contracts as of July 12th. AUD positions had totaled 63,336 net long contracts on July 5th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions edged higher for a second consecutive week and leveled at the highest level since November 2010. NZD contracts increased to a total of 19,584 net long positions as of July 12th from a total of 18,986 long contracts on July 5th.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts rose for the third straight week to a total of 90,447 net long speculative positions as of July 12th. MXN contracts had risen to 82,944 net long contracts, according to data as of July 5th.
COT Data Summary as of July 12, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +12416
GBP: -24801
JPY: +28288
CHF: +8081
CAD: +15334
AUD: +67623
NZD: +19584
MXN: +98447
