Forex COT Speculators decreased US Dollar short bets last week, CAD bets rise

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 slightly decreased their overall bearish bets of the US dollar last week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, had an overall US dollar short position totaling -$0.686 billion as of Tuesday April 29th, according to the latest data from the CFTC and calculations by Reuters. This was a weekly change of +$0.894 billion from the -$1.58 billion total short position that was registered on April 22nd, according to 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 USD position has been on the bearish side (slightly) for the past three weeks after having stayed in bullish territory since October 29th with the highest bullish position reached on January 21st with a +$25.89 total position.

For the week, speculators increased their bets in favor of just the Canadian dollar while there was weekly declines for the euro, Japanese yen, British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Mexican peso.

Notable changes:

•     The small Euro decline has pushed Euro positions to fall five out of the last six weeks (same with Swiss franc)

•     British pound sterling positions declined for 2nd week after a string of five straight weekly gains

•     Canadian dollar bearish positions are at their lowest level since November 26th 2013 when bearish net contracts were -28,780

•     Australian dollar net position decline broke a streak of 7 straight weekly advances

* 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.

Weekly Charts: Large Speculators Weekly Positions vs Currency Spot Price

EuroFX:

Last Six Weeks data for EuroFX futures

British Pound Sterling:

Last Six Weeks data for Pound Sterling futures

Japanese Yen:

Last Six Weeks data for Yen Futures

Swiss Franc:

Last Six Weeks data for Franc futures

Canadian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for Canadian dollar futures

Australian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for Australian dollar futures

New Zealand Dollar:

Last Six Weeks data for New Zealand dollar futures

Mexican Peso:

Last Six Weeks data for Mexican Peso futures

*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