Currency Speculators pushed USD bullish bets to highest since June

By CountingPips.com

The weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures traders continued to boost their total bullish bets of the US dollar last week. Total US dollar long positions have increased for two straight weeks and are now at the highest level since June 2012, according to data by Reuters.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, increased their overall US dollar long positions to a total of $32.27 billion as of Tuesday May 14th. This was an advance from the total long position of $26.83 billion registered on May 7th, according to position calculations by Reuters that derives this total by the amount of US dollar positions against the combined positions of euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

What is the COT Report:

The weekly cot report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).

Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions in Futures:

The individual currency net speculator positions last week saw advances for the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso while the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar all had a declining number of net large trader contracts for the week.

Individual Currency Charts: (Please Click on Chart to Enlarge)

EuroFX:

EuroFX: Large trader positions for the euro decreased last week for a second consecutive week. Euro contracts fell to a total net position of -46,921 contracts in the data reported for May 14th following the previous week’s total of -33,533 net contracts on May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EURO

British Pound Sterling:

GBP: British pound spec positions declined last week for a second straight week. British pound speculative positions decreased last week to a total of -65,355 net contracts on May 14th following a total of to -63,086 contracts reported for May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling

Japanese Yen:

JPY: Japanese yen net speculative contracts declined last week for second straight week and to the lowest overall position in the last four weeks. Japanese yen positions decreased to a total of -88,407 net contracts on May 14th following a total of -78,560 net short contracts on May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen

Swiss Franc:

CHF: Swiss franc large speculator positions declined last week and fell to the lowest level of 2013. Net positions for the Swiss currency futures decreased to a total of -15,410 contracts on May 14th following a total of -6,235 net contracts reported for May 7th. This surpasses the previous low-level of -13,488 contracts registered on March 12th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc

Canadian Dollar:

CAD: Canadian dollar positions improved last week for a fourth consecutive week after falling to a new low level for 2013 on April 16th. Canadian dollar positions improved to a total of -44,417 contracts as of May 14th following a total of -51,916 net contracts that were reported for May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD

Australian Dollar:

AUD: The Australian dollar large speculator positions decreased sharply again last week to decline for a seventh consecutive week. Aussie speculative futures positions dropped to a total net amount of -13,450 contracts on May 14th after totaling +6,630 net contracts as of May 7th. This is the first time Aussie large spec contracts have been negative since June 26, 2012 when contracts equaled -2,159.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD

New Zealand Dollar:

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions declined last week to fall for a second consecutive week. NZD contracts fell lower to a total of +23,216 net long contracts as of May 14th following a total of +28,536 net long contracts on May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD

Mexican Peso:

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts edged slightly higher last week after being virtually unchanged the previous week. Peso positions increased slightly to a total of +140,319 net speculative positions as of May 14th following a total of +138,441 contracts that were reported for May 7th.

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN

The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a 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.)

See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis