Forex COT Speculators raised bets in favor of Major Currencies against US Dollar last week

By CountingPips.com

The latest data for the weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, showed that large traders and speculators increased their bets in favor of the other major currencies against the US dollar last week with the Australian dollar and British pound sterling continuing to show multi-week gains.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, increased their bets in favor of the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar last week, according to the CFTC data through April 15th. Meanwhile, there was weekly declines for the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso.

Notable changes: Yen rises, AUD & GBP continue to gain

• Japanese yen positions saw the biggest change for the week as positions for the yen increased by +18,746 contracts and brought the yen’s overall net bearish positions to the lowest level in approximately a month (-68,716 contracts).

• Euro positions rose after three straight weeks of declines as the increase in bullish contracts (+13,617) outpaced the increase in bearish contracts (+9,229) last week.

• British pound sterling net bullish positions gained for a 5th consecutive week and rose to their highest level since February 15th 2011 when bullish positions equaled +52,572 contracts.

• Australian dollar contracts improved for a sixth consecutive week and increased the Aussie net bullish position to +8,097 contracts after making the cross from net bearish contracts to net bullish contracts on April 8th.

* All currency positions are in direct relation to the US dollar where, for example, a bet for the euro is a bet that the euro will rise versus the dollar while a bet against the euro will be a bet that the dollar will gain versus the euro. Please see charts and data below.

Weekly Charts: Large Speculators Weekly Positions vs Currency Spot Price

EuroFX:

Last Six Weeks data for EuroFX futures

British Pound Sterling:

Last Six Weeks data for Pound Sterling futures

Japanese Yen:

Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures

Swiss Franc:

Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures

Canadian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures

Australian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures

New Zealand Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures

Mexican Peso:

Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders 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).

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 Apps & News