The latest data for the weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report was released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and showed that large futures speculators turned bearish on the US dollar on October 8th and then registered three straight weeks of bearish positions through October 22nd.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, had an overall US dollar short position totaling $-3.64 billion as of Tuesday October 22nd. This was a weekly change of $-2.4 billion from the total position of $-1.24 billion that was registered on October 15th, according to data from Reuters that calculates this amount by the total of US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

US dollar positions, on October 22nd, were at a new lowest level since February 5th when US dollar bets were short at a total of $-9.15 billion.

This latest batch of data, three weeks worth for October 8th, 15th & 22nd, is a catch up for the missed releases during the government shutdown and does not cover last week’s positions.

Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions in Futures:

The large non-commercial net positions for each of the individual major currencies directly against the US dollar on October 22nd showed weekly increases for the euro, British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar while there were declines for the Japanese yen and the Mexican peso.

Individual Currency Charts:

EuroFX:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EuroFX

Date	Large Trader Net Positions	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	31907	19211
09/24/2013	65844	33937
10/01/2013	68276	2432
10/08/2013	68683	407
10/15/2013	60374	-8309
10/22/2013	72434	12060

British Pound Sterling:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	-6310	31856
09/24/2013	1174	7484
10/01/2013	1496	322
10/08/2013	8771	7275
10/15/2013	12231	3460
10/22/2013	14262	2031

Japanese Yen:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	-88794	6272
09/24/2013	-92818	-4024
10/01/2013	-82324	10494
10/08/2013	-57097	25227
10/15/2013	-59266	-2169
10/22/2013	-71802	-12536

Swiss Franc:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	616	196
09/24/2013	5745	5129
10/01/2013	6636	891
10/08/2013	10415	3779
10/15/2013	10767	352
10/22/2013	10931	164

Canadian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	-18764	12178
09/24/2013	-5675	13089
10/01/2013	-955	4720
10/08/2013	-8663	-7708
10/15/2013	-10814	-2151
10/22/2013	-5364	5450

Australian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	-27360	32672
09/24/2013	-34819	-7459
10/01/2013	-28804	6015
10/08/2013	-26404	2400
10/15/2013	-32237	-5833
10/22/2013	-22111	10126

New Zealand Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	5657	6258
09/24/2013	8055	2398
10/01/2013	10891	2836
10/08/2013	10766	-125
10/15/2013	12668	1902
10/22/2013	13114	446

Mexican Peso:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN

Date	Lg Trader Net	Weekly Change
09/17/2013	-10201	-18480
09/24/2013	14023	24224
10/01/2013	14601	578
10/08/2013	10933	-3668
10/15/2013	7761	-3172
10/22/2013	7214	-547

*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

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