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 cut back on their overall US dollar long positions last week while Japanese yen positions rebounded after falling for six consecutive weeks and Canadian dollar long positions rose to their highest level since May 2011.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their total US dollar long positions to $11.67 billion on March 20th from a total long position of $19.0 billion on March 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.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators increased their sentiment for the euro currency for a second consecutive week as Euro short positions fell to the lowest level since November 2011. Euro net positions declined to 82,954 short contracts on March 20th from the previous week’s total of 99,336 net short contracts. Euro contracts are at the best position since November 22nd when short positions totaled 85,068 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: British pound sterling positions saw a surge of improvement last week after consecutive weekly declines in the previous weeks. British pound positions saw a total of 15,852 net short positions on March 20th following a total of 41,848 net short positions registered on March 13th. British pound sterling positions are still on the short side but are at their best level since September 6th when positions equaled 13,220 short contracts.
JPY: The Japanese yen speculative contracts rebounded last week from their sharp downtrend that had lasted sixth consecutive weeks. Yen positions improved to a total of 25,821 net short contracts reported on March 20th following a total of 42,380 net short contracts on March 13th. Yen speculative positions, two weeks ago, were at their lowest level since April 19th 2011 when positions totaled 52,983 short contracts.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose for a second consecutive week last week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 11,191 net short contracts on March 20th following a total of 14,798 net short contracts as of March 13th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions surged higher for a seventh consecutive week and rose to their highest level since May 2011. Canadian dollar positions advanced to a total of 42,315 net long contracts as of March 20th following a total of 26,721 long contracts that were reported for March 13th. CAD positions are at their highest position since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 54,041.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions fell sharply after rebounding the previous week. Australian dollar positions decreased to a total net amount of 45,191 long contracts on March 20th after totaling 66,756 net long contracts reported as of March 13th. The AUD speculative positions are now at their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions decreased for a fourth consecutive week after they had risen for nine straight weeks through February 21st. NZD contracts dropped to a total of 4,210 net long contracts as of March 20th following a total of 13,223 net long contracts on March 13th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand dollar contracts since January 3rd when contracts equaled 2,436 net long positions.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts decreased sharply following a string of ten consecutive weekly increases through March 13th. Peso long positions declined to a total of 24,329 net long speculative positions as of March 20th following a total of 78,892 long contracts that were reported for March 13th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of March 20, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -82954
GBP -15852
JPY -25821
CHF -11191
CAD +42315
AUD +45191
NZD +4210
MXN +24329
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
