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 cut their positions of the euro against the US dollar for a second consecutive week and now stand at a bearish level for the European common currency. Non-commercial futures positions, those taken by hedge funds and large speculators, added to their long positions in favor of the Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar directly against the US dollar while decreasing their bets for the euro, Swiss franc, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso, according to data on August 30th.
This week’s notable changes included British pound sterling positions falling lower and close to back over to the short side while New Zealand dollar positions fell lower for the fourth consecutive week.
EuroFX: Currency speculators decreased their futures positions for the euro against the U.S. dollar for a second consecutive week to an overall net short position as of August 30th. Euro positions dipped to a total of -384 net short contracts from the previous week’s total of 2,539 net long contracts on August 23rd. Euro positions are at their lowest point since August 9th when net contracts reached a low of -8,273.
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 fell after rebounding the previous week. Pound positions decreased to a total of 444 long positions following a total of 10,961 short positions as of August 23rd.
JPY: The Japanese yen net contracts declined for a second consecutive week as of August 30th. Yen net long positions edged lower to a total of 41,185 net long contracts reported on August 30th following a total of 47,139 net long contracts reported on August 23rd.
CHF: Swiss franc long positions edged slightly lower after increasing for two consecutive weeks. Speculators decreased bets on Swiss currency futures to a total of 9,342 net long contracts as of August 30th following a total of 9,637 net long contracts as of August 23rd. Swiss franc speculative futures positions had dropped to their lowest level in over a year on August 9th at a total of 4,655 net long contracts.
CAD: The Canadian dollar positions increased for a second consecutive week as of August 30th. CAD net contracts rose to a total of 13,939 net long contracts as of August 30th following an increase to a total of 8,804 net long contracts on August 23rd.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions rose for a third consecutive week as of August 30th following a sharp decline on August 9th. AUD futures positions advanced higher to a total net amount of 47,569 long contracts as of August 30th following a total of 43,574 net long contracts reported as of August 23rd. The August 9th drop to the 29,723 level marked the lowest level for Australian dollar speculative positions since November 2010.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures positions fell for a fourth consecutive week to a total of 16,565 net long contracts on August 30th following a decline to 16,876 net long contracts registered on August 23rd. NZD contracts had increased for five straight weeks to their highest level in over a year at 24,126 net long positions as of August 2nd before declining for four consecutive weeks.
MXN: Mexican peso long contracts continued to edge lower and declined for a fifth straight week as of August 30th. Peso positions declined to a total of 20,880 net long speculative positions as of August 30th following a total of 21,835 contracts that were reported as of August 23rd. Peso positions are currently at their lowest level since September 14th of 2010 when net contracts equaled 14,957.
COT Data Summary as of August 30, 2011
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -384
GBP +444
JPY +41185
CHF +9342
CAD +13939
AUD +47569
NZD +16565
MXN +20880
