By CountingPips.com
Large Speculator bullish bets decline to $11.60 billion on March 4th
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 futures speculators decreased their bullish position of the US dollar for a fourth straight week and to a new lowest level since November 2013.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, had an overall US dollar long position totaling $11.60 billion as of Tuesday March 4th, according to data from Reuters. This was a weekly change of -$2.17 billion from the $13.77 billion total bullish position that was registered on February 25th, according to the calculations by 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 aggregate position is now at the lowest level since November 5th 2013 when the overall bullish position totaled $7.02 billion.
Net Contract Standings for the week:
Individual Currencies – Large Speculator Weekly changes:
The non-commercial net positions for each of the individual currencies directly against the US dollar showed weekly gains for the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso while there were weekly declines for the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar. See charts & data below.
Individual Currency Charts: Large & Small Speculator Positions vs Spot Price
EuroFX:
Last Six Weeks data for EuroFX futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 260799 | 86963 | 72616 | 14347 | 18119 |
| 02/04/2014 | 274146 | 67614 | 81224 | -13610 | -27957 |
| 02/11/2014 | 281037 | 75048 | 81977 | -6929 | 6681 |
| 02/18/2014 | 291360 | 88634 | 80035 | 8599 | 15528 |
| 02/25/2014 | 296924 | 93003 | 79103 | 13900 | 5301 |
| 03/04/2014 | 304308 | 103868 | 80416 | 23452 | 9552 |
British Pound Sterling:
Last Six Weeks data for Pound Sterling futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Lg Specs Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 218738 | 63359 | 41187 | 22172 | 13452 |
| 02/04/2014 | 202690 | 52098 | 41147 | 10951 | -11221 |
| 02/11/2014 | 204982 | 53199 | 42527 | 10672 | -279 |
| 02/18/2014 | 241471 | 76271 | 53948 | 22323 | 11651 |
| 02/25/2014 | 257037 | 74558 | 45756 | 28802 | 6479 |
| 03/04/2014 | 254013 | 71021 | 41416 | 29605 | 803 |
Japanese Yen:
Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 203014 | 15977 | 102169 | -86192 | 28769 |
| 02/04/2014 | 199361 | 15896 | 92725 | -76829 | 9363 |
| 02/11/2014 | 196435 | 13686 | 92472 | -78786 | -1957 |
| 02/18/2014 | 200057 | 16736 | 96520 | -79784 | -998 |
| 02/25/2014 | 203743 | 14727 | 99817 | -85090 | -5306 |
| 03/04/2014 | 205886 | 20407 | 100116 | -79709 | 5381 |
Swiss Franc:
Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 40869 | 11389 | 11830 | -441 | 1480 |
| 02/04/2014 | 41918 | 13236 | 11016 | 2220 | 2661 |
| 02/11/2014 | 42433 | 12166 | 11611 | 555 | -1665 |
| 02/18/2014 | 51003 | 14188 | 17016 | -2828 | -3383 |
| 02/25/2014 | 55157 | 19396 | 19038 | 358 | 3186 |
| 03/04/2014 | 60532 | 21818 | 19650 | 2168 | 1810 |
Canadian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 157214 | 25976 | 88765 | -62789 | 7538 |
| 02/04/2014 | 160625 | 29439 | 89739 | -60300 | 2489 |
| 02/11/2014 | 157495 | 27745 | 86673 | -58928 | 1372 |
| 02/18/2014 | 154862 | 27756 | 92756 | -65000 | -6072 |
| 02/25/2014 | 141519 | 24865 | 83456 | -58591 | 6409 |
| 03/04/2014 | 147033 | 23306 | 84402 | -61096 | -2505 |
Australian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 136426 | 13997 | 79720 | -65723 | -1069 |
| 02/04/2014 | 125394 | 11696 | 67219 | -55523 | 10200 |
| 02/11/2014 | 110523 | 10202 | 57605 | -47403 | 8120 |
| 02/18/2014 | 103049 | 9439 | 53837 | -44398 | 3005 |
| 02/25/2014 | 98643 | 10299 | 49290 | -38991 | 5407 |
| 03/04/2014 | 105792 | 12262 | 53370 | -41108 | -2117 |
New Zealand Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 21796 | 16606 | 6921 | 9685 | 1129 |
| 02/04/2014 | 20098 | 14588 | 6556 | 8032 | -1653 |
| 02/11/2014 | 19085 | 13176 | 5535 | 7641 | -391 |
| 02/18/2014 | 21516 | 15331 | 6425 | 8906 | 1265 |
| 02/25/2014 | 22142 | 16529 | 5547 | 10982 | 2076 |
| 03/04/2014 | 25616 | 19346 | 5914 | 13432 | 2450 |
Mexican Peso:
Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 01/28/2014 | 133035 | 20730 | 56046 | -35316 | -31688 |
| 02/04/2014 | 131832 | 13694 | 48209 | -34515 | 801 |
| 02/11/2014 | 127225 | 9682 | 43622 | -33940 | 575 |
| 02/18/2014 | 131097 | 8094 | 31406 | -23312 | 10628 |
| 02/25/2014 | 128542 | 9971 | 31540 | -21569 | 1743 |
| 03/04/2014 | 126885 | 8230 | 28980 | -20750 | 819 |
*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
