Forex: Large Currency Speculators trim US Dollar bets for first time in five weeks

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 decreased their overall US dollar bets last week for the first time in five weeks.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, trimmed their US dollar long positions to a total of $8.01 billion on November 27th from a total long position of $11.2 billion on November 20th, 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.

 

 

Individual Currencies:

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment for the euro improved last week for the first time in six weeks. Euro net short positions or bets against the currency declined to 66,693 contracts on November 27th from the previous week’s total of 91,400 net short contracts on November 20th. Euro positions, on November 20th, were at their lowest level since September 11th and had fallen for five straight weeks.

 

 

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, 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.)

 

GBP: British pound sterling positions rebounded last week after falling for three straight weeks. British pound sterling speculative positions rose to a total of 10,278 net long contracts on November 27th following a total of 730 net long contracts on November 20th.

 

 

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts decreased sharply last week for a second consecutive week. Japanese yen positions declined to a total of 79,466 net short contracts reported on November 27th following a decline to a total of 51,389 net short contracts on November 20th. The decline in Yen positions has put Yen trader sentiment in the deepest short territory of 2012.

 

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rebounded last week after three weeks of decline in contracts. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 3,367 net short contracts on November 27th following a total of 12,488 net short contracts as of November 20th.

 

CAD: Canadian dollar positions edged higher after registering declining positions for nine consecutive weeks. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 62,379 net long contracts as of November 27th following a total of 61,446 net long contracts that were reported for November 20th. Canadian dollar positions had reached the highest level in over two years on September 18th and then fell the next nine weeks in a row before last week’s small turnaround.

 

 

AUD: The Australian dollar positions increased last week after falling the previous week. Aussie speculative futures positions rose to a total net amount of 76,806 long contracts on November 27th after totaling 64,711 net long contracts as of November 20th. Australian dollar contracts have now risen five out of the last six weeks.

 

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions advanced last week after falling the previous two weeks. NZD contracts edged higher to a total of 18,710 net long contracts as of November 27th following a total of 17,858 net long contracts on November 20th.

 

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts rose last week for the first time in seven weeks. Peso positions increased to a total of 93,858 net long speculative positions as of November 27th following a total of 86,787 long contracts that were reported for November 20th. Peso contracts, two weeks ago, were at their lowest level since August 14th when long positions totaled 83,511 contracts.

 

Article by CountingPips.com