10-Year Note Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large bond speculators slightly increased their record high bearish net positions in the 10-Year Note futures markets this week, 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 10-Year Note futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -700,514 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 21st. This was a weekly decline of -2,320 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -698,194 net contracts.
The bearish speculative position has risen for two straight weeks and for five out of the past six weeks. This week’s small rise marks a new record high bearish position and the first time the standing has surpassed the -700,000 net contract level.
Speculators have pushed their bearish bets to new record highs for three out of the last four weeks and the bearish standing has approximately doubled over the past ten weeks (from -359,463 contracts to -700,514 contracts).
10-Year Note Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 852,899 contracts on the week. This was a weekly gain of 9,642 contracts from the total net of 843,257 contracts reported the previous week.
iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond (NASDAQ:IEF) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) closed at approximately $102.68 which was an increase of $0.44 from the previous close of $102.24, according to unofficial market data.