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 sharply reduced their Canadian dollar bearish positions last week while large specs trimmed their euro positions that had reached their highest level since October the previous week.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, increased their bets for the Canadian dollar, British pound sterling, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar last week, according to the data through March 25th. Meanwhile, there was weekly declines for the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and the Mexican peso net positions.
Canadian dollar large speculator positions were the biggest movers on the week with a change of +36,590 contracts to bring the overall net positions to -33,215 contracts. Net bearish CAD positions had marked their highest level on March 18th since a total of -70,327 positions were registered on January 21st. The weekly CAD data saw long positions rise by +12,690 contracts while the short positions declined by -23,900 contracts for a net change of +36,590 on the week.
Euro large speculator positions dipped last week to a net total of +39,634 contracts after rising to approximately a 5-month high of +52,991 contracts the previous week. The data showed that long euro positions fell by -10,905 contracts while short positions rose by +2,452 contracts for a net change of -13,357 for euro contracts 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. 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 |
| 02/18/2014 | 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 262179 | 106914 | 67280 | 39634 | -13357 |
British Pound Sterling:
Last Six Weeks data for Pound Sterling futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 202115 | 66751 | 37027 | 29724 | 4188 |
Japanese Yen:
Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 158280 | 17600 | 86487 | -68887 | -7788 |
Swiss Franc:
Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 47353 | 25037 | 10218 | 14819 | -297 |
Canadian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 133246 | 40441 | 73656 | -33215 | 36590 |
Australian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 84232 | 24387 | 44914 | -20527 | 3936 |
New Zealand Dollar:
Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 02/18/2014 | 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 32748 | 26243 | 8030 | 18213 | 2462 |
Mexican Peso:
Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Large Specs Net | Weekly Change |
| 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 |
| 03/25/2014 | 115858 | 22769 | 24423 | -1654 | -384 |
*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
