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 decreased their overall US dollar long positions last week for a third consecutive week while Canadian dollar positions showed the largest upward movement and reached their highest position in over a year.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their short positions in the euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen while adding to long positions in the British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso. New Zealand dollar long positions dipped for a second straight week.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment improved for a second straight week in the euro currency as euro net short positions or bets against the currency decreased to 106,990 contracts on May 1st from the previous week’s total of 113,367 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: British pound sterling positions rose last week for a third consecutive week and landed at their highest level in just about a year. British pound positions saw a total of 16,493 net long contracts on May 1st following a total of 7,536 net long contracts registered on April 24th. Pound positions have continued to rise higher and are now at the highest level since May 10th 2011 when long contracts equaled 18,118.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a third consecutive week as Yen positions totaled 50,173 net short contracts reported on May 1st following a total of 55,903 net short contracts on April 24th.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose last week for a second straight week after declining for the previous two weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 14,311 net short contracts on May 1st following a total of 16,641 net short contracts as of April 24th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions once again advanced higher and reached their highest level since March of 2011. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 70,223 net long contracts as of May 1st following a total of 44,224 long contracts that were reported for April 24th. CAD positions recently surpassed their previous highest level of the year and are at the highest level since March 8th 2011 when long contracts numbered 77,544.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions improved slightly after decreasing the previous week. Aussie positions rose to a total net amount of 52,280 long contracts on May 1st after falling to 46,041 net long contracts reported as of April 24th. AUD speculative positions on April 10th had reached their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for second straight week as NZD contracts fell to a total of 8,025 net long contracts as of May 1st following a total of 9,486 net long contracts on April 24th. NZD contracts on April 17th were at their highest level since March 13 before pulling back last week.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts trended slightly higher after falling for three straight weeks. Peso long positions increased to a total of 42,045 net long speculative positions as of May 1st following a total of 40,208 long contracts that were reported for April 24th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of May 1, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -106990
GBP +16493
JPY -50173
CHF -14311
CAD +70223
AUD +52280
NZD +8025
MXN +42045
