Forex futures market speculative positioning data from the CFTC Commitmentsof Traders report as of the close on Tuesday June 2, 2015:

  • EUR net short 138K vs. short 166K prior
  • JPY net short 116K vs. short 85K prior
  • GBP net short 28K vs. short 26K prior
  • AUD net short 14K vs short 13K prior
  • CAD net short 14K vs short 1K prior
  • CHF net long 10K vs. long 8K prior

Yen net short

The big story was the continued rush into yen shorts. That left the pair extremely vulnerable and when Kuroda quipped on Wednesday about the yen not falling further earlier this week, it was a rush to the exits. As you can see, the yen short position wasn't particularly large given the averages over the past 8 months but what stands out is the intensity of the move from nearly-neutral to -137K. That left far too many weak hands who had sold USD/JPY in the 120-126 range.

The good news is that the selling stopped immediately after Kuroda. That shows that not all the hands were weak hands. But we'll have to wait until next week's data to get a better picture.