By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showed that futures speculators decreased their bets in favor of the major currencies against the US dollar for a third straight week. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, were overall net short the US dollar by $23.1 billion against the other major currencies as of October 26th, down from a total short position of $25.8 billion on October 19th, according to data published by Reuters.
On an individual currency basis, speculators cut their long positions for the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Mexican peso while adding to long positions in the Swiss franc and New Zealand dollar compared to the week before.
EuroFx: Currency specs were net long the euro against the U.S. dollar by 40,505 contracts as of October 26th. This is a decrease of over 6,000 contracts following net long positions of 46,748 contracts on October 19th.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) 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. Open interest is the number of open contracts that have not been closed by a transaction or by delivery.
GBP: The British pound sterling positions fell slightly to a net of 5,089 contracts after being long on October 19th by 5,796 positions. The latest data marks the third straight week the long positions have edged lower.
JPY: The Japanese yen net long contracts decreased slightly for a third straight week to 43,129 long contracts as of October 26th from 45,856 net long contracts reported on October 19th.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions dropped lower for a second straight week to a net total of 19,875 contracts after totaling 30,740 net longs on October 19th.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged higher to 12,519 long contracts as of October 26th after totaling a net of 11,235 long contracts on October 19th. This breaks three straight weeks of decreases following a rise to their highest level in almost a year October 5th.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions decreased lower for the fourth straight week after reaching their highest level since April on September 28th. AUD futures contracts declined to a net amount of 55,115 long contracts as of October 26th from 59,181 long contracts on October 19th.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions edged slightly higher to a total of 15,871 long contracts after a total of 15,331 long contracts the week before.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts edged lower as of October 26th to 80,143 net long positions from 82,125 longs the week prior. The latest data marks the third straight week of declines for the Mexican peso speculative positions.
COT Data Summary as of October 26th, 2010
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
Euro: +40,505 contracts from +46,748 contracts on October 5th
British pound sterling: +5,089 contracts from +5,796 contracts
Australian dollar: +55,115 contracts from +59,181 contracts
Canadian dollar: +19,875 contracts from +30,740 contracts
Japanese yen: +43,129 contracts from +45,856 contracts
Mexican peso: +80,143 contracts from +82,125 contracts
New Zealand dollar: +15,871 contracts from +15,331 contracts
Swiss franc: +12,519 contracts from +11,235 contracts
Go to the Commitment of Traders CME raw futures data
Further COT Resources from around the web:
