An employee counts U.S. dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Jakarta, Indonesia October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta
December 21, 2018
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Speculators’ net long bets on the U.S. dollar rose in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $29.72 billion in the week ended Dec. 18, up from $28.48 billion the previous week. Speculators have been net long on dollars since the middle of June.
The value of the net long dollar position rose to a near two-year high of $31.12 billion earlier in December.
To be long on a currency means traders believe it will rise in value, while being short points to a bearish bias.
U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Speculators boosted their net short position on bitcoin Cboe future contracts to 1,342 contracts, up from a net short position of 913 contracts, the data showed.
(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
