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 continued to pile into bets against the European common currency for a fifth consecutive week.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, added to their short positions for the euro while trimming short positions in the British pound sterling, Swiss franc and the Canadian dollar. The Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso saw higher long positions directly against the US dollar while the Japanese yen decreased for a second consecutive week.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators added more to their Euro short positions for a fifth week as of January 24th and raised their short bets to a new record high once again. Euro short positions totaled 171,347 net short contracts from the previous week’s total of 160,030 net short contracts as speculator sentiment for the common European currency for futures speculators remained dismal last week.
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 showed improvement following four consecutive weeks of declines as of January 24th. British pound positions saw a total of 31,361 short positions on January 24th following a total of 41,634 net short positions registered on January 17th.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long speculative contracts declined lower for a second consecutive week, according to the latest data on January 24th. Yen long positions decreased to a total of 44,367 net long contracts reported on January 24th following a total of 58,862 net long contracts that were reported on January 17th. Yen speculative positions on January 10th had registered their highest level in over a year surpassing the August 2nd level when long positions leveled at 58,833 contracts.
CHF: Swiss franc speculators slightly trimmed their short bets against the Swiss currency as of January 24th although positions have barely changed in the past four weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures numbered a total of 12,514 net short contracts on January 24th following a total of 12,822 net short contracts as of January 17th. Swiss contracts have now been on the short side by more than 10,000 contracts for five consecutive weeks.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions improved after declining for three consecutive weeks. Canadian dollar positions improved to a total of 18,909 net short contracts as of January 24th following a total of 28,730 short contracts reported on January 17th. CAD positions on January 17th marked their lowest level in over a year.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions continued higher for a fifth consecutive week as of January 24th. Australian dollar positions increased to a total net amount of 69,486 long contracts on January 24th after totaling 54,306 net long contracts reported as of January 17th. The AUD speculative positions are at their highest level since August 2nd when Australian dollar long positions totaled 75,598.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions rose higher and increased for a fifth consecutive week through January 24th. NZD contracts advanced to a total of 12,932 net long contracts as of January 24th following a total of 9,455 net long contracts on January 17th. NZD positions have now risen for five straight weeks from the December 20th low standing (which was the lowest position since March 29th when positions equaled 239 long contracts) to the highest level since September 20th.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts improved for a third consecutive week and crossed back over to a positive long position against the US dollar. Peso long positions numbered a total of 7,418 net long speculative positions as of January 24th following a total of 17,328 net short contracts that were reported on January 17th. Peso contracts are now in a positive long position for the first time since September 6th win contracts were positive by 13,246.
COT Currency Data Summary as of January 24, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -171347
GBP -31361
JPY +44367
CHF -12514
CAD -18909
AUD +69486
NZD +12932
MXN +7418
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
