The weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures traders decreased their total bullish bets of the US dollar last week for the first time since April. Prior to last week, total US dollar long positions had increased for four consecutive weeks and to a new highest level since 2008 when Reuters started calculating the total $ amount of positions, according to Reuters.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, trimmed their overall US dollar long positions to a total of $39.12 billion as of Tuesday June 4th. This was a decline from the total long position of $43.77 Billion registered on May 28th, 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 speculator net positions saw advances for the euro, Japanese yen and the Swiss franc last week while the British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso all had a declining number of net large trader contracts for the week.
Individual Currency Charts:
EuroFX:
EuroFX: Large trader positions for the euro improved last week after falling for four consecutive weeks. Euro contracts gained to a total net position of -51,621 contracts in the data reported for June 4th following the previous week’s total of -84,644 net contracts on May 28th.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EURO
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Change |
| 04/30/2013 | -30149 | 4126 |
| 05/07/2013 | -33533 | -3384 |
| 05/14/2013 | -46921 | -13388 |
| 05/21/2013 | -80949 | -34028 |
| 05/28/2013 | -84644 | -3695 |
| 06/04/2013 | -51621 | 33023 |
British Pound Sterling:
GBP: British pound spec positions fell slightly last week after rising slightly the previous week. British pound speculative positions edged lower last week to a total of -77,738 net contracts on June 4th following a total of to -74,525 contracts reported for May 28th. This is the lowest level for British pound sterling contracts in 2013.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | -58607 | 1505 |
| 05/07/2013 | -63086 | -4479 |
| 05/14/2013 | -65355 | -2269 |
| 05/21/2013 | -76976 | -11621 |
| 05/28/2013 | -74525 | 2451 |
| 06/04/2013 | -77738 | -3213 |
Japanese Yen:
JPY: Japanese yen net speculative contracts improved sharply last week after falling for four straight weeks and to the lowest overall position in 2013. Japanese yen positions improved to a total of -82,744 net contracts on June 4th following a total of -99,769 net short contracts on May 28th.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | -71127 | 8603 |
| 05/07/2013 | -78560 | -7433 |
| 05/14/2013 | -88407 | -9847 |
| 05/21/2013 | -95186 | -6779 |
| 05/28/2013 | -99769 | -4583 |
| 06/04/2013 | -82744 | 17025 |
Swiss Franc:
CHF: Swiss franc large speculator positions improved last week after declining for three straight weeks and falling to the lowest level of 2013. Net positions for the Swiss currency futures improved to a total of -25,803 contracts on June 4th following a total of -28,972 net contracts reported for May 28th.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | -8264 | -9443 |
| 05/07/2013 | -6235 | 2029 |
| 05/14/2013 | -15410 | -9175 |
| 05/21/2013 | -19930 | -4520 |
| 05/28/2013 | -28972 | -9042 |
| 06/04/2013 | -25803 | 3169 |
Canadian Dollar:
CAD: Canadian dollar positions decreased last week after improving for six consecutive weeks. Canadian dollar positions fell to a total of -39,776 contracts as of June 4th following a total of -33,359 net contracts that were reported for May 28th.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | -67848 | 3831 |
| 05/07/2013 | -51916 | 15932 |
| 05/14/2013 | -44417 | 7499 |
| 05/21/2013 | -33852 | 10565 |
| 05/28/2013 | -33359 | 493 |
| 06/04/2013 | -39776 | -6417 |
Australian Dollar:
AUD: Australian dollar large speculator positions declined again last week to fall for a 10th consecutive week. Aussie speculative futures positions decreased to a total net amount of -58,550 contracts on June 4th after totaling -42,307 net contracts as of May 28th. This is the fourth week of negative Aussie large spec contracts after having been in positive territory since June 26, 2012.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | 30234 | -1023 |
| 05/07/2013 | 6630 | -23604 |
| 05/14/2013 | -13450 | -20080 |
| 05/21/2013 | -32409 | -18959 |
| 05/28/2013 | -42307 | -9898 |
| 06/04/2013 | -58550 | -16243 |
New Zealand Dollar:
NZD: New Zealand dollar large speculator bets decreased once again last week and declined for a fifth consecutive week. NZD contracts fell lower to a total of +6,013 net long contracts as of June 4th following a total of +14,011 net long contracts on May 28th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand Kiwi positions since July 10, 2012.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | 29050 | 1345 |
| 05/07/2013 | 28536 | -514 |
| 05/14/2013 | 23216 | -5320 |
| 05/21/2013 | 17782 | -5434 |
| 05/28/2013 | 14011 | -3771 |
| 06/04/2013 | 6013 | -7998 |
Mexican Peso:
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts fell sharply lower last week and declined for a third consecutive week. Peso positions fell to a total of +82,871 net speculative positions as of June 4th following a total of +120,864 contracts that were reported for May 28th. This is the lowest level for Mexican peso positions since August 7, 2012 when contracts equaled +69,378.
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN
| date | Lg Trader Net | Change Weekly |
| 04/30/2013 | 138551 | -8360 |
| 05/07/2013 | 138444 | -107 |
| 05/14/2013 | 140319 | 1875 |
| 05/21/2013 | 136863 | -3456 |
| 05/28/2013 | 120864 | -15999 |
| 06/04/2013 | 82871 | -37993 |
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
