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 decreased their overall long bets for the US dollar last week against the other major currencies despite Euro short positions rising to a new record level.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their total US dollar long positions to $15.71 billion on January 3rd from a total long position of $20.35 billion on December 27th, 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.
EuroFX: Currency speculators continued to add to their Euro short positions as of January 3rd and raised their short bets to a new record high surpassing the previous one registered two weeks ago. Euro short positions numbered to a total of 138,909 net contracts from the previous week’s total of 127,879 net short contracts.
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: Bearish bets of the British pound sterling increased for a second consecutive week as of January 3rd. British pound positions saw a total of 31,899 short positions on January 3rd following a total of 29,172 net short positions registered on December 27th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts surged higher, according to data on January 3rd. Yen long positions jumped to a total of 56,481 net long contracts reported on January 3rd following a total of 20,585 net long contracts that were reported on December 27th. The sharp rise in Yen speculative positions put them at their highest level since August 2nd when long positions registered 58,833 contracts.
CHF: Bets in favor of the Swiss franc decreased for a second consecutive week as of January 3rd. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures fell to a total of 12,355 net short contracts on January 3rd following a total of 10,798 net short contracts as of December 27th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined slightly to a total of 23,371 net short contracts as of January 3rd following a total of 20,812 short contracts reported on December 27th. CAD speculators have had a bearish position against the US dollar since September 6th and positions have consistently hovered around the 20,000 short contracts level since late September.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions rose for a second consecutive week as of January 3rd. Australian dollar positions increased to a total net amount of 46,537 long contracts on January 3rd following a total of 32,637 net long contracts reported as of December 27th. The AUD speculative positions are now at their highest level since September 6th when Australian dollar long positions totaled 48,041.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions edged slightly higher for a second consecutive week through January 3rd. NZD contracts increased to a total of 2,436 net long contracts as of January 3rd following a total of 1,405 net long contracts registered the previous week. NZD contract’s show a slightly bullish position against the USD and are improved from the December 20th standing (612 long contracts) which was the lowest position since March 29th when positions equaled 239 long contracts.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts barely moved against the US dollar as traders continue to short the Mexican currency. Peso short positions numbered a total of 25,829 net short speculative positions as of January 3rd following a total of 25,685 short contracts that were reported on December 27th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of January 3, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -138909
GBP -31899
JPY +56481
CHF -12355
CAD -23371
AUD +46537
NZD +2436
MXN -25829
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
