Currency speculators boosted bets against the euro to a record high in the latest week and built up the biggest long dollar position since mid-2010, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $20.35 billion in the week ended December 27, the biggest since June 2010. It stood at $17.63 billion the previous week.
The bulk of the bets in favour of the dollar came at the euro's expense. The net short euro position swelled to 127,879 contracts, the largest position on record. To be short a currency is to bet it will decline in value, while being long is a view its value will rise. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars. Among those six currencies, speculators were only long the yen and Australian dollar relative to the US dollar.