Speculators' US dollar net long highest since 2008 –CFTC

San Francisco (Nov 21)  Speculators increased their net long U.S. dollar position in the latest week to its largest in six years, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position surged to $46.45 billion in the week ended Nov. 18 from $43.99 billion the previous week. That was the largest net long position on the greenback since 2008, when Reuters started computing dollar positioning.

This week was also the seventh straight week that U.S. dollar longs have touched at least $40 billion, which reflects bullish sentiment on prospects for the U.S. economy and currency.

To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while being short is a bet its value will decline. Speculators also raised euro short positions, which totaled 168,730 contracts, from 163,893 the previous week, indicating a bearish view on the euro zone.

Next week should see a further increase in net euro shorts after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday the ECB was ready to do more quantitative easing to stimulate the euro zone economy.

The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar position is derived from net positions of speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.

Source:  Reuters