By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators trimmed their short positions of the US dollar against the other major currencies while continuing to raise bets against the Japanese yen. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $25.11 billion against other major currencies as of April 12th. The data is a decline from the total short position of $25.18 billion on April 5th, according to the CFTC data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
This week’s notable changes were Japanese yen positions declining for a third straight week to the lowest level in almost a year while euro positions rose for a fourth straight week and to their highest level in over a year.
EuroFx: Currency speculators increased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a fourth consecutive week. Futures positions in the euro rose to a net total of 64,985 long positions as of April 12th following a total of 59,857 long positions on April 5th.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) 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. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.
GBP: British pound sterling bets dipped as of April 12th to a total of 26,671 net long positions after rising the week before to a total of 32,414 long contracts on April 5th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts declined for a third straight week. Yen contracts decreased to a total of 52,877 short contracts following a total of 43,231 net short contracts reported on April 5th. This is the lowest level for yen contracts since May 4,2010 when short contracts totaled 65,612.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions moved higher after decreases lower for three straight weeks. Franc positions increased to a total of 14,657 net long contracts following a net of 10,843 long contracts on April 5th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions edged lower to a total of 63,741 contracts as of April 12th after CAD net contracts had risen to a total of 65,030 net long contracts on April 5th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions were just about unchanged last week near the highest level in over a year. AUD contracts totaled a net amount of 90,651 long contracts as of April 12th after AUD positions had totaled 90,938 net long contracts on April 5th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions increased higher for a fourth consecutive week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 6,336 long positions as of April 12th from a total of 2,695 long contracts on April 5th.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts rebounded to a new high for the year at a total of 124,846 net long contracts on April 12th. MXN positions had increased the week before to a total of 119,062 long contracts as of April 5th.
COT Data Summary as of April 12, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +64,985
GBP: +26,671
JPY: -52,877
CHF: +14,657
CAD: +63,741
AUD: +90,651
NZD: +6,336
MXN: +124,846
Further COT Resources from around the web:
