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 boosted their long bets for the US dollar last week against the Euro while other major currencies saw slight improvements, according to the latest data which shows trader positions as of December 13th. Euro short positions against the US dollar rose to the highest level of the year and to a new record surpassing the May 11th 2010 level of 113,890 Euro short positions recorded.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $16.32 billion on December 13th from a total long position of $14.59 billion on December 6th, 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 increased their Euro short positions to a new record high as of December 13th as doubts continue to mount over the Eurozone’s solutions to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis. Euro short positions increased to a total of 116,457 net contracts from the previous week’s total of 95,814 net short contracts. The last time the euro short positions were this high was May 2010 when contracts numbered 113,890.
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 as of December 13th for second consecutive week. British pound positions saw a total of 39,509 short positions on December 13th following a total of 43,560 net short positions registered on December 6th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts decreased for a third consecutive week as of December 13th. Yen long positions declined to a total of 35,600 net long contracts reported on December 13th following a total of 38,271 net long contracts that were reported on December 6th.
CHF: Swiss franc positions reversed four consecutive weeks of declines to show improvement on December 13th. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures edged higher to a total of 10,481 net short contracts on December 13th following a total of 11,158 net short contracts as of December 6th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions rose higher for a second consecutive week to the best level since September 20th. CAD net contracts improved to a total of 13,385 net short contracts as of December 13th following a total of 20,171 short contracts reported on December 6th. CAD positions are now at their highest level since being on the short side by 5,458 contracts in late September.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions rose higher for second consecutive week after three consecutive weekly declines. Australian dollar positions rose to a total net amount of 34,429 long contracts on December 13th following a total of 29,824 net long contracts reported as of December 6th. The AUD speculative positions last week reached their highest level since September 13th when Australian dollar long positions totaled 36,934.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions improved for a second consecutive week as of December 13th after edging up just slightly higher the previous week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 5,383 net long contracts as of December 13th following a total of 3,857 net long contracts registered the previous week. NZD contract’s most recent bottom on November 29th was the lowest New Zealand dollar position level since April 5th when positions equaled 2,695 long contracts.
MXN: Mexican peso contracts fell last week directly against the US dollar as more speculative traders chose to short the Mexican currency. Peso short positions rose to a total of 22,894 net short speculative positions as of December 13th following a total of 20,862 short contracts that were reported on December 6th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of December 13, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -116457
GBP -39509
JPY +35600
CHF -10481
CAD -13385
AUD +34429
NZD +5383
MXN -22894
