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 boosted their euro positions last week to the highest level in almost five months while increasing bets for the other major currencies as well.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, placed bets in favor of the European common currency, Swiss franc, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso last week, according to the data through March 18th.
There was a decline for just the Canadian dollar net positions on the week. 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.
Euro large speculator positions rose to a net total of +52,991 contracts through March 18th from a total of +36,385 on March 11th. This marks the highest level of euro positions since October 29th, 2013 when net euro positions stood at +70,617 contracts. The biggest mover of the week was the Japanese yen which saw a weekly change of +38,257 contracts that brought the bearish overall net position down to -61,099 on March 18th from -99,356 on March 11th.
Please see charts and data below.
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 |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 322020 | 110103 | 73718 | 36385 | 12933 |
| 03/18/2014 | 264443 | 117819 | 64828 | 52991 | 16606 |
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 |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 250867 | 64553 | 42554 | 21999 | -7606 |
| 03/18/2014 | 208961 | 64141 | 38605 | 25536 | 3537 |
Japanese Yen:
Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 242170 | 15726 | 115082 | -99356 | -19647 |
| 03/18/2014 | 156922 | 24144 | 85243 | -61099 | 38257 |
Swiss Franc:
Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 66889 | 23097 | 14140 | 8957 | 6789 |
| 03/18/2014 | 49391 | 25311 | 10195 | 15116 | 6159 |
Canadian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 153639 | 25180 | 77371 | -52191 | 8905 |
| 03/18/2014 | 186782 | 27751 | 97556 | -69805 | -17614 |
Australian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 122241 | 8627 | 49477 | -40850 | 258 |
| 03/18/2014 | 81737 | 21577 | 46040 | -24463 | 16387 |
New Zealand Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 31905 | 21155 | 6706 | 14449 | 1017 |
| 03/18/2014 | 31463 | 24645 | 8894 | 15751 | 1302 |
Mexican Peso:
Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/11/2014 | 166949 | 12739 | 20986 | -8247 | 12503 |
| 03/18/2014 | 111057 | 19320 | 20590 | -1270 | 6977 |
*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
