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 euro and British pound sterling short positions but remained overall bullish in favor of the US dollar for a fifth straight week. Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, slightly increased their total US dollar long positions to $14.24 billion on October 11th from a total long position of $13.77 billion on October 4th, 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.
EuroFX: Currency speculators reduced the short bets for the euro against the U.S. dollar after increasing short positions for seven consecutive weeks. Euro positions rose as of October 11th to a total of 73,795 net short contracts from the previous week’s total of 82,697 net short contracts reported on October 4th. Euro positions were at their lowest point on October 4th since June 8, 2010 when net contracts were on the short side at -111,945.
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 reversed their six-week decline and increased slightly as of October 11th. Pound positions increased to a total of 61,972 short positions on October 11th following a total of 68,724 short positions as of October 4th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts declined lower, according to data on October 11th. Yen positions fell to a total of 35,119 net long contracts reported on October 11th following a total of 43,462 net long contracts that were reported on October 4th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged higher and reversed its decline over to the short side against the US dollar for the first time since July of 2010. Speculators rose bets for the Swiss currency futures to a total of 13 net long contracts to what amounts to essentially a neutral position against the dollar following a total of 1,109 net short contracts as of October 4th. The Swiss currency, usually a popular safe haven currency, has seen very little movement since the Swiss National Bank enacted a policy to fight the strength of the franc and maintain a peg against the euro at the 1.20 level.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions dropped lower from the previous week to the lowest bearish level of the year. CAD net contracts fell to a total of 24,913 short contracts as of October 11th following an increase to a total of 15,682 short contracts reported on October 4th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions slightly declined as of October 11th after a rebound the previous week. AUD futures positions dipped to a total net amount of 10,753 long contracts following a total of 12,911 net long contracts reported as of October 4th. The September 27th level had marked the lowest level for Aussie positions since July of 2010.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions slightly rebounded after falling for three consecutive weeks to the lowest level since the middle of April. NZD contracts advanced higher to a total of 6,838 net long contracts as of October 11th following a total of 5,566 net long contracts registered on October 4th.
MXN: Mexican peso contracts edged very slightly higher as of October 11th and reversing a continuous decline for nine consecutive weeks. Peso positions edged up to a total of 24,870 net short speculative positions as of October 11th following a total of 25,431 short contracts that were reported as of October 4th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of October 11, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -73795
GBP -61972
JPY 35119
CHF +13
CAD -24913
AUD +10753
NZD +6838
MXN -24878
