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 euro positions declined for a second straight week to the lowest level in two months.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their total US dollar long positions to $22.6 billion on April 17th from a total long position of $23.2 billion on April 10th, 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 decreased their sentiment for the euro currency for second consecutive week as euro net short positions or bets against the currency increased to 118,125 contracts on April 17th from the previous week’s total of 101,364 net short contracts. Euro positions are now at the lowest level since February 21st when short contracts totaled 142,159. .
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 rose last week and continued to show a steady improvement over the last five weeks. British pound positions saw a total of 13,051 net short contracts on April 17th following a total of 18,784 net short contracts registered on April 10th.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week as Yen positions rose to a total of 57,803 net short contracts reported on April 17th following a total of 66,084 net short contracts on April 10th. Japanese yen positions have been at the lowest level in years for the past four weeks.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions declined last week after improving for the previous two weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 13,762 net short contracts on April 17th following a total of 9,919 net short contracts as of April 10th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions jumped higher after declining the previous week. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 38,028 net long contracts as of April 17th following a total of 27,967 long contracts that were reported for April 10th. CAD positions are now at their highest position in just about a month as positions are just below the March 20th level of 42,315 contracts.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions advanced after declining for two consecutive weeks. Australian dollar positions increased to a total net amount of 48,421 long contracts on April 17th after declining to 39,429 net long contracts reported as of April 10th. The AUD speculative positions on April 10th were at their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions jumped higher for a third consecutive week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 11,939 net long contracts as of April 17th following a total of 7,170 net long contracts on April 10th. NZD contracts are now at their highest level since March 13 after falling on March 27th to the lowest level for New Zealand dollar contracts since January 3rd when contracts equaled 2,436 net long positions.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts fell lower for a second consecutive week. Peso long positions decreased to a total of 46,101 net long speculative positions as of April 17th following a total of 68,600 long contracts that were reported for April 10th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of April 17, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -118125
GBP -13051
JPY -57803
CHF -13762
CAD +38028
AUD +48421
NZD +11939
MXN +46101
