By CountingPips.com
The latest data for the weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, showed that large traders and speculators continued to increase their US dollar bullish bets for the fifth straight week last week and to the highest standing since February.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, had an overall US dollar long position totaling $15.95 billion as of Tuesday June 10th, according to the latest data from the CFTC and calculations by Reuters. This was a weekly change of +$4.56 billion from the $11.39 billion total long position that was registered on June 3rd, according to Reuters that totals the US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
The US dollar has continued to be on the bullish side for a fifth consecutive week and the aggregate USD position is now at the highest level since February 18th when total bullish contracts equaled +$16.28 billion.
Overall changes for the week in the major currencies showed that large speculators bet in favor of the British pound sterling, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso while there were weekly declines for the euro, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and the New Zealand dollar.
Notable changes:
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- Euro positions dropped for the 5th straight week to the lowest overall level since May 2013
- British pound sterling positions rose slightly and for the 3rd out of last 4 weeks as net bullish positions closed above +35,000 contracts
- Japanese yen bearish positions rose for 3rd week and pushed contracts to a new high bearish level since April
- Swiss franc positions fell slightly and remained on the bearish side for 3rd week
- Australian dollar positions continued their improvement and moved to the new highest bullish position since April 2013
- Mexican peso positions rose for a fifth straight week and to best level since May 2013 as bullish positions close in on +100,000 contracts
* All currency positions are in direct relation to the US dollar where, for example, a bet for the euro is a bet that the euro will rise versus the dollar while a bet against the euro will be a bet that the dollar will gain versus the euro. Please see charts and data below.
Weekly Charts: Large Speculators Weekly Positions vs Currency Spot Price
EuroFX:
Last Six Weeks data for EuroFX futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 277013 | 110673 | 78122 | 32551 | 6817 |
| 05/13/2014 | 268142 | 84383 | 86558 | -2175 | -34726 |
| 05/20/2014 | 268199 | 75013 | 84233 | -9220 | -7045 |
| 05/27/2014 | 274051 | 70753 | 87386 | -16633 | -7413 |
| 06/03/2014 | 280747 | 57109 | 90134 | -33025 | -16392 |
| 06/10/2014 | 331636 | 43739 | 100924 | -57185 | -24160 |
British Pound Sterling:
Last Six Weeks data for Pound Sterling futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 241264 | 83794 | 43148 | 40646 | -3588 |
| 05/13/2014 | 230333 | 71168 | 39413 | 31755 | -8891 |
| 05/20/2014 | 237637 | 80009 | 46919 | 33090 | 1335 |
| 05/27/2014 | 238440 | 78438 | 43134 | 35304 | 2214 |
| 06/03/2014 | 239604 | 79476 | 44502 | 34974 | -330 |
| 06/10/2014 | 271602 | 85202 | 49360 | 35842 | 868 |
Japanese Yen:
Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 167093 | 20381 | 81109 | -60728 | 9624 |
| 05/13/2014 | 164707 | 17471 | 82178 | -64707 | -3979 |
| 05/20/2014 | 164819 | 18681 | 72468 | -53787 | 10920 |
| 05/27/2014 | 162820 | 16999 | 76035 | -59036 | -5249 |
| 06/03/2014 | 171804 | 12578 | 86796 | -74218 | -15182 |
| 06/10/2014 | 201094 | 11893 | 94055 | -82162 | -7944 |
Swiss Franc:
Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 55538 | 25102 | 11918 | 13184 | -519 |
| 05/13/2014 | 45282 | 16951 | 10145 | 6806 | -6378 |
| 05/20/2014 | 48803 | 17387 | 12368 | 5019 | -1787 |
| 05/27/2014 | 48284 | 11559 | 15431 | -3872 | -8891 |
| 06/03/2014 | 48936 | 11907 | 13919 | -2012 | 1860 |
| 06/10/2014 | 52445 | 9615 | 12645 | -3030 | -1018 |
Canadian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 122287 | 28044 | 59644 | -31600 | -1305 |
| 05/13/2014 | 121632 | 26986 | 53023 | -26037 | 5563 |
| 05/20/2014 | 121268 | 26500 | 53034 | -26534 | -497 |
| 05/27/2014 | 129989 | 32581 | 54391 | -21810 | 4724 |
| 06/03/2014 | 130275 | 32519 | 55250 | -22731 | -921 |
| 06/10/2014 | 125832 | 30303 | 54411 | -24108 | -1377 |
Australian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 104936 | 44805 | 36168 | 8637 | -2069 |
| 05/13/2014 | 107302 | 50147 | 33020 | 17127 | 8490 |
| 05/20/2014 | 107613 | 50130 | 30668 | 19462 | 2335 |
| 05/27/2014 | 109139 | 52071 | 36223 | 15848 | -3614 |
| 06/03/2014 | 110911 | 56811 | 35284 | 21527 | 5679 |
| 06/10/2014 | 128984 | 62141 | 33894 | 28247 | 6720 |
New Zealand Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 33025 | 25027 | 4334 | 20693 | 2213 |
| 05/13/2014 | 30932 | 23806 | 4466 | 19340 | -1353 |
| 05/20/2014 | 30556 | 22486 | 4892 | 17594 | -1746 |
| 05/27/2014 | 30649 | 22034 | 4090 | 17944 | 350 |
| 06/03/2014 | 30066 | 22400 | 4869 | 17531 | -413 |
| 06/10/2014 | 32946 | 20401 | 3546 | 16855 | -676 |
Mexican Peso:
Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 05/06/2014 | 146455 | 67663 | 19779 | 47884 | -1734 |
| 05/13/2014 | 149209 | 86137 | 17515 | 68622 | 20738 |
| 05/20/2014 | 154795 | 92730 | 15464 | 77266 | 8644 |
| 05/27/2014 | 157626 | 101808 | 18507 | 83301 | 6035 |
| 06/03/2014 | 162647 | 105666 | 19650 | 86016 | 2715 |
| 06/10/2014 | 200202 | 106566 | 16363 | 90203 | 4187 |
*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).
The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).
Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a 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.)
See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.
Article by CountingPips.com – Forex Apps & News
