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 raised their bets against the US dollar after betting in favor of the dollar the past few weeks. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $15.08 billion against the other major currencies as of July 5th, according to a report published by Reuters. The data is an increase from the total short position of $12.44 billion registered on June 28th, according to the CFTC COT 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 British pound sterling positions declining sharply lower on the short side to the lowest position since July 2010 while Mexican peso positions rose sharply after a few weeks of settling at the lowest levels since September 2010.
EuroFX: Currency speculators increased their net long positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second straight week. Euro futures positions rose to a total of 43,194 long contracts as of July 5th following a total of 32,987 long positions on June 28th.
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 positions continued to decline lower on the short side as of July 5th and fell to their lowest position since July 13, 2010. Pound contracts decreased to a total of 31,669 net short positions following a total of 18,349 short contracts on June 28th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts edged higher after a decline the previous week to a total of 14,327 net long contracts reported on July 5th. This follows a total of 13,623 net long contracts on June 28th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions decreased for a fifth straight week as of July 5th. Franc positions fell to a total of 5,291 net long contracts following a net of 9,948 long contracts on June 28th. This marks the lowest level for franc positions in over a year.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions rebounded slightly last week after declining to the lowest level since August of 2010 the previous week. CAD positions rose to a total of 6,821 long contracts on July 5th following a total of 1,863 short contracts on June 28th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions increased on July 5th after declining for two consecutive weeks. AUD contracts advanced to a total net amount of 63,336 long contracts as of July 5th. AUD positions had totaled 46,897 net long contracts on June 28th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions edged higher last week after dipping for two straight weeks. NZD contracts rose to a total of 18,986 long positions as of July 5th from a total of 18,364 long contracts on June 28th.
MXN: Mexican peso net long contracts increased sharply to 82,944 net long contracts as of July 5th from a total of 46,077 long contracts as of June 28th. Peso positions had been declining over the previous weeks and reached a 2011 low on June 21st.
COT Data Summary as of July 5, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR: +43194
GBP: -31669
JPY: +14327
CHF: +5291
CAD: +6821
AUD: +63336
NZD: +18986
MXN: +82944
