NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators raised bullish bets on the U.S. dollar to the largest position since March 2017, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $18.41 billion in the week ended July 17, up from $16.41 billion the previous week. Speculators were net long dollars for a fifth straight week, after being short for 48 consecutive weeks.
To be long a currency means traders believe it will rise in value, while being short points to a bearish bias.
U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Yen net short bets, meanwhile, grew to 58,650 contracts, the largest short position since March, CFTC data showed.
The net short position on bitcoin CBOE futures was at 1,640 contracts, the largest short position in four weeks, the data showed.