Forex futures market speculative positioning data from the CFTC Commitments of Traders report as of the close on Tuesday, April 15 2014:

  • EUR net long 28K vs long 23K prior
  • JPY net short 67K vs short 87K prior
  • GBP net long 51K vs long 46K prior
  • AUD net long 8K vs long 3K prior
  • CAD net short 35K vs short 34K prior
  • CHF net long 14K vs long 11K prior
  • NZD net long 20K vs long 20K prior

These numbers were released late on Friday but I’m just catching up with them now. The big news is that yen shorts headed for the exits. USD/JPY has done very little this year and the early April spike above 104.00 was quickly retraced.

The thing is, this is good news for USD/JPY longs as the trade is now a bit less crowded. A modest series of higher lows since the start of the year is also bullish along with news of more aggressive pension investments. The bad news is that the BOJ isn’t talking about more easing.