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 raised their overall US dollar long positions last week for the third consecutive week as risk aversion dominated the markets.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $35.14 billion on May 22nd from a total long position of $28.52 billion on May 15th, 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 plummeted for the euro currency again last week as euro net short positions or bets against the currency increased to 195,361 contracts on May 22nd from the previous week’s total of 173,869 net short contracts on May 15th. Euro short positions have plunged to the highest level on record for a second straight week and surpassed the May 15th level when short contracts totaled 173,869.
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, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and 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 decreased last week for a second consecutive week after rising for four straight weeks and reaching the highest level in over a year on May 8th. British pound positions saw a total of 11,340 net long contracts on May 22nd following a total of 25,021 net long contracts registered on May 15th.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a sixth consecutive week. Yen positions totaled 18,015 net short contracts reported on May 22nd following a total of 34,315 net short contracts on May 15th. The improvement in the Japanese positions has coincided with heavy risk aversion in the markets and the US Dollar falling against the yen in the spot price forex market. The USDJPY pair currently trades under the 79.50 level.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions decreased sharply for a second consecutive week last week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 34,851 net short contracts on May 22nd following a total of 26,694 net short contracts as of May 15th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined last week for a third straight week after reaching the highest level of the year on May 1st. Canadian dollar positions declined to a total of 38,555 net long contracts as of May 22nd following a total of 51,005 long contracts that were reported for May 15th.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions dropped sharply for a third consecutive week and brought Aussie positions to a negative number for the first time in years. Aussie positions declined to a total net amount of 16,898 short contracts on May 22nd after falling to 4,734 net long contracts as of May 15th. AUD speculative positions are now at the lowest level since at least 2009 and two weeks ago surpassed the previous low level of the last 12 months that was a total of 5,167 contracts on September 26th of 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for a fifth straight week as positions for the Kiwi turned negative. NZD contracts decreased to a total of 1,509 net short contracts as of May 22nd following a total of 2,597 net long contracts on May 15th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand Kiwi contracts since March 15, 2011 when contracts were negative by 2,809.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts continued lower for third consecutive week. Peso positions decreased to a total of 16,116 net short speculative positions as of May 22nd following a total of 14,445 long contracts that were reported for May 15th. This is the lowest level for Mexican peso contracts since January 17, 2012 when contracts were a total of 17,328 short positions.
COT Currency Data Summary as of May 22, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -195361
GBP +11340
JPY -18015
CHF -34851
CAD +38555
AUD -16898
NZD -1509
MXN -16116
