Here are the essentials of the latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday, January 11, by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for a week ended January 8.
One may clearly see that on the week ended Jan. 8 the market sentiment worsened. US Dollar net short positions declined from $9 bln the previous week to $7 bln in the week ended Jan. 8. Net EUR postions switched to short, while JPY shorts contracted. GBP, CAD and CHF longs were down, AUD longs remained unchanged.
It’s necessary to note that the figures cited above are always a week old at the time of their release. Never the less, CFTC data gives a good oversight into how the market is positioned and if/how these positions are being unwound. Although the CME speculators represent a small fraction of trading in the currency markets, their trades are widely seen as typical of hedge fund investors' currency movements.