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 raised their bullish bets in favor of the US dollar and increased their bearish positions for the euro and the British pound sterling. Speculative positions have now totaled an overall bullish dollar bias for a 10th consecutive week.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, increased their US dollar positions against the euro, British pound sterling, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc, according to the CFTC COT data reported as of November 15th. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen and Mexican peso saw increased positions directly against the dollar for the week.
EuroFX: Currency speculators raised their short bets for the euro against the U.S. dollar as of November 15th to a total of 76,147 net short contracts from the previous week’s total of 54,257 net short contracts that were reported as of November 8th. The change in euro positions breaks a string of three consecutive weeks of improvement for euro positions.
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: Currency speculators increased their bearish bets against the British pound sterling as of November 15th. British pound positions fell to a total of 32,864 short positions following a total of 29,122 short positions registered on November 8th. The rise in GBP short positions follows five consecutive weeks of declining short positions and improvement for the pound sterling.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts edged higher last week to gain for a second consecutive week. Yen long positions increased to a total of 33,680 net long contracts reported on November 15th following a total of 28,077 net long contracts that were reported on November 8th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions fell back over to the short side last week after gaining a showing improvement the previous week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures edged down to a total of 1,904 long net short contracts following a total of 2,162 net short contracts as of November 8th. The Swiss currency, a popular safe haven currency, has continued to see subdued movement in Forex trading since the Swiss National Bank initiated a policy to peg franc against the euro at the 1.20 level.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions edged lower for a second straight week as of November 15th. CAD net contracts decreased to a total of 17,215 short contracts as of November 15th following a total of 15,568 short contracts reported on November 8th. CAD positions are floating near the lowest level of the year which was reached on October 11th when net short positions reached 21,913.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions decreased for the first time in five weeks as of November 15th. Australian dollar positions fell to a total net amount of 24,330 long contracts following a total of 27,016 net long contracts reported as of November 8th. The AUD speculative positions had gained four consecutive weeks before the latest data.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined last week after five straight weeks of gains. NZD contracts dipped to a total of 10,614 net long contracts as of November 15th following a total of 11,550 net long contracts registered on November 8th.
MXN: Mexican peso contracts showed improvement for a third consecutive week as of November 15th and increased to their highest level since early September. Peso positions edged up to a total of 15,021 net short speculative positions as of November 15th following a total of 18,067 short contracts that were reported on November 8th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of November 15, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -76147
GBP -32864
JPY +33680
CHF -1904
CAD -17215
AUD +24330
NZD +10614
MXN -15021
