Currency Speculators increased bets against US Dollar last week for 3rd 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 continued to decrease their bets in the US dollar last week as overall US dollar positions fell to their lowest level since October.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, had an overall US dollar short position totaling -$1.58 billion as of Tuesday April 22nd, according to the latest data from the CFTC and calculations by Reuters. This was a weekly change of -$0.41 billion from the -$1.17 billion total short position that was registered on April 15th, according to Reuters that totals the US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Last week’s data marks the highest short position in the US dollar since October 29th 2013 when bearish positions equaled -$3.14 billion.

For the week, speculators increased their bets in favor of the Japanese yen, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar while there was weekly declines for the euro, British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso.

Notable changes:

• Euro positions have fallen four out of the last five weeks to the lowest level since March 4th
  

• British pound sterling positions fell slightly after five straight weeks of gains

• Japanese yen positions rose for the third straight week

• Swiss franc (-43), Canadian dollar (-29), New Zealand dollar (+328) and Mexican Peso (-726) positions saw little change for the week

• Australian dollar net positions rose the most in the week (+8,273) as the Aussie had its third straight bullish position and highest bullish standing since April 2013

* 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