Currency speculators' bets against the dollar swelled to $22 billion in the latest week, the largest value since at least mid-2008, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. The value of the dollar's net short position rose to $22 billion in the week ended September 28, compared to a net short of $14.21 billion the previous week, according to Reuters and CFTC calculations.
That was the largest bet against the US currency since at least June 2008. A short position is a bet that a currency will decline in value. Most of the move came from speculators' bets in favour of the euro, which rose nearly seven times on the week to 35,330 contracts from 5,097 the prior week. That was the largest net long euro position since at least October 2009, according to Reuters calculations.
Speculators also sharply cut bets against sterling and raised long positions in the Swiss franc, Japanese yen and Australian dollar. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from the net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.