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 overall US dollar long positions last week while Japanese yen positions fell sharply for a fifth consecutive week and declined to their lowest level since April 2011.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, added to their short positions in the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen and the Swiss franc while also trimming their long positions in the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar. The Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso saw higher long positions directly against the US dollar with both currencies showing multiple weekly gains.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators increased their Euro short positions after sentiment for the euro currency had improved for two consecutive weeks. Euro net short positions rose to 116,473 contracts against the currency on March 6th from the previous week’s total of 109,674 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: British pound sterling positions fell back as short positions increased after two weeks of improvements and seeing their best position since September, according to the data as of March 6th. British pound positions saw a total of 37,099 net short positions on March 6th following a total of 23,235 net short positions registered on February 28th. British pound sterling positions were at their best level on February 28th since September 6th when positions equaled 13,220 short contracts.
JPY: The Japanese yen speculative contracts continued their downward trend last week to fall for a fifth consecutive week and declined to their lowest level since April 2011. Yen positions dropped to a total of 19,358 net short contracts reported on March 6th following a total of 1,203 net short contracts on February 28th. Yen speculative positions, now in short territory for second straight week, are at their lowest level since April 26th when positions totaled 36,997 short contracts.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions were virtually unchanged for the third consecutive week last week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 19,478 net short contracts on March 6th following a total of 19,391 net short contracts as of February 28th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions rose higher for a fifth consecutive week and are at their highest level since August. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 26,032 net long contracts as of March 6th following a total of 22,480 long contracts that were reported for February 28th. CAD positions are now at their highest position since August 2nd 2011 when long contracts equaled 41,037.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined following two consecutive weekly increases. Australian dollar positions fell to a total net amount of 61,720 long contracts on March 6th after totaling 78,201 net long contracts reported as of February 28th. The AUD speculative positions on February 28th were at their highest level since Australian dollar long positions totaled 81,438 on July 26th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions decreased for a second consecutive week after they had risen for nine straight weeks through February 21st. NZD contracts fell to a total of 16,788 net long contracts as of March 6th following a total of 22,114 net long contracts on February 28th. NZD contracts on February 21st had passed the previous 12-month high level recorded on August 2nd when net long contracts totaled 24,126.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts improved for a ninth consecutive week and are at the best position since August 2nd. Peso long positions numbered a total of 66,347 net long speculative positions as of March 6th following a total of 60,750 long contracts that were reported for February 28th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of March 6, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -116473
GBP -37099
JPY -19358
CHF -19478
CAD +26032
AUD +61720
NZD +16788
MXN +66347
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
