By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators decreased their short bets against the US dollar against the other major currencies. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $15.52 billion against other major currencies as of November 16th, down from a total short position of $21.85 billion on November 9th, according to data published by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc. Speculators have raised their bets for the dollar four out of the last five weeks.
On an individual currency basis, speculators added to their long positions for the British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Mexican peso and the New Zealand dollar while cutting long positions in the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and the Australian dollar compared to the week before.
EuroFx: Currency specs were net long the euro against the U.S. dollar by 8,606 contracts as of November 16th. This is a decrease of approximately 14,000 contracts following net long positions of 23,283 contracts on November 9th and the fourth straight week of declining euro long positions after touching a high of 48,243 on October 5th.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) 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. Open interest is the number of open contracts that have not been closed by a transaction or by delivery.
GBP: The British pound sterling positions rose higher to a net of 23,771 contracts after being long on November 9th by 21,266 positions. The latest data is a third straight week of increasing pound positions.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long contracts declined for a second straight week to 22,858 long contracts as of November 16th from 36,654 net long contracts reported on November 9th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions advanced higher for a third straight week to a net total of 38,441 contracts after totaling 37,338 net longs on November 9th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions decreased after being essentially unchanged for three straight weeks to a total of 7,803 long contracts as of November 16th after totaling a net of 12,615 long contracts on November 9th.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions decreased lower for the seventh straight week after reaching their highest level since April on September 28th. AUD futures contracts declined to a net amount of 36,202 long contracts as of November 16th from 47,616 long contracts on November 9th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions increased higher for a fourth straight week to their highest level all year at a total of 23,445 long contracts after a total of 22,250 long contracts the week before.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts increased as of November 16th to 93,217 net long positions from 88,746 longs the week prior. The latest data marks three straight weeks of increases for the Mexican peso speculative positions.
COT Data Summary as of November 16th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: +8,606 contracts from +23,283 contracts
British pound sterling: +23,771 contracts from +21,266 contracts
Australian dollar: +36,202 contracts from +47,616 contracts
Canadian dollar: +38,441 contracts from +37,338 contracts
Japanese yen: +22,858 contracts from +36,654 contracts
Mexican peso: +93217 contracts from +88,746 contracts
New Zealand dollar: +23445 contracts from +22,250 contracts
Swiss franc: +7803 contracts from +12,615 contracts
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
Further COT Resources from around the web:
