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 slightly raised their overall long bets for the US dollar last week against the other major currencies as of December 20th. Euro short positions against the US dollar improved slightly after falling to the highest level of the year and to a new record the previous week.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $17.63 billion on December 13th from a total long position of $16.32 billion on December 13th, 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 slightly decreased their Euro short positions as of December 20th after pushing short bets the previous week to a new record high. Euro short positions decreased to a total of 113,697 net contracts from the previous week’s total of 116,457 net short contracts.
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: Currency speculators decreased their bearish bets of the British pound sterling for a third consecutive week as of December 20th. British pound positions saw a total of 25,939 short positions on December 20th following a total of 39,509 net short positions registered on December 13th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts fell for a fourth consecutive week as of December 20th. Yen long positions declined to a total of 24,476 net long contracts reported on December 20th following a total of 35,600 net long contracts that were reported on December 13th. Yen speculative positions are now at their lowest level since July 5th when long positions registered 14,327 contracts.
CHF: Swiss franc positions increased for a second consecutive week as of December 20th. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures edged higher to a total of 3,136 net short contracts on December 20th following a total of 10,481 net short contracts as of December 13th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions decreased after rising higher for two consecutive weeks to the almost equal the lowest level all year. CAD net contracts fell to a total of 26,868 net short contracts as of December 20th following a total of 13,385 short contracts reported on December 13th. CAD positions are just about equal to their lowest level of the year that was registered on November 29 with 26,869 short contracts.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined after rising for two consecutive weeks as of December 20th. Australian dollar positions fell to a total net amount of 25,742 long contracts on December 20th following a total of 34,429 net long contracts reported as of December 13th. The AUD speculative positions on December 13th had reached their highest level since September 13th when Australian dollar long positions totaled 36,934.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined and contracts stand at just about a neutral position. NZD contracts decreased to a total of 612 net long contracts as of December 20th following a total of 5,383 net long contracts registered the previous week. NZD contract’s stand at their lowest position since March 29th one positions equaled 239 long contracts.
MXN: Mexican peso contracts improved against the US dollar as less speculative traders chose to short the Mexican currency. Peso short positions decreased to a total of 18,802 net short speculative positions as of December 20th following a total of 22,894 short contracts that were reported on December 13th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of December 20, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -113697
GBP -25939
JPY +24476
CHF -3136
CAD -26868
AUD +25742
NZD +612
MXN -18802
