CFTC Futures data shows speculators continue to pare bearish positions
10 Year Treasuries: Large U.S. 10-Year Note futures traders continued to cut back on their overall bearish bets last week for a fourth straight week and to the lowest level since November, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of the 10-year treasury notes, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -107,892 contracts in the data reported for January 27th. This was a weekly change of +37,706 net contracts from the previous week’s total of -145,598 net contracts that was recorded on January 20th.
For the week, the overall standing long positions in 10-year futures fell by 29,573 contracts but were offset by the short positions that saw a decline by 67,279 contracts to register the overall net change of +37,706 contracts for the week.
The current 10-year futures speculator position remains at the lowest bearish level since November 25th when positions equaled -75,327 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday January 20th to Tuesday January 27th, the yield on the 10-Year treasury note ticked up from 1.82 percent to 1.83 percent, according to data from the United States Treasury Department.
COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).