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 US dollar long positions last week while Japanese yen positions fell sharply for a sixth consecutive week and declined to their lowest level in almost a year.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, trimmed their total US dollar long positions to $19.0 billion on March 13th from a total long position of $19.27 billion on March 6th, 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.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators increased their sentiment for the euro currency as Euro short positions fell to the lowest since December. Euro net short positions declined to 99,336 contracts against the currency on March 13th from the previous week’s total of 116,473 net short contracts. Contracts are at the best position since December 6th when short positions totaled 95,814 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 for a second consecutive week, according to the data as of March 13th. British pound positions saw a total of 41,848 net short positions on March 13th following a total of 37,099 net short positions registered on March 6th. British pound sterling positions are at their lowest level since December 6th when positions equaled 43,560 short contracts.
JPY: The Japanese yen speculative contracts continued their sharp downtrend last week to drop for a sixth consecutive week and declined to their lowest level since April 2011. Yen positions fell to a total of 42,380 net short contracts reported on March 13th following a total of 19,358 net short contracts on March 6th. Yen speculative positions are at their lowest level since April 19th 2011 when positions totaled 52,983 short contracts.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose after contracts were virtually unchanged for the previous three consecutive weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 14,798 net short contracts on March 13th following a total of 19,478 net short contracts as of March 6th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions rose higher for a sixth consecutive week and remain at their highest level since August. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 26,721 net long contracts as of March 13th following a total of 26,032 long contracts that were reported for March 6th. CAD positions are at their highest position since August 2nd 2011 when long contracts equaled 41,037.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions rebounded last week after a decline the previous week. Australian dollar positions increased to a total net amount of 66,756 long contracts on March 13th after totaling 61,720 net long contracts reported as of March 6th. 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 third consecutive week after they had risen for nine straight weeks through February 21st. NZD contracts decreased to a total of 13,223 net long contracts as of March 13th following a total of 16,788 net long contracts on March 6th. 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 tenth consecutive week and continue to be at the best position since August 2nd. Peso long positions numbered a total of 78,892 net long speculative positions as of March 13th following a total of 66,347 long contracts that were reported for March 6th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of March 13, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -99336
GBP -41848
JPY -42380
CHF -14798
CAD +26721
AUD +66756
NZD +13223
MXN +78892
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
