Hedge Funds: Favor the Dollar, Shun the Pound

Ralph Shell submits: One of the financial papers this morning featured a survey of currency preferences by hedge fund managers. Since this survey was taken between Feb. 11 and Feb.22, the opinions seem more like recent history than hot news. The dollar was the most favored currency by hedge fund managers, at that time, but why should this be a featured story 20 to 30 days later? We have the echoes of past preferences making headlines today.The latest commitment of traders report gives us data through March 6th. In that report, the large specs traders, probably almost all funds, had cast a decisive vote against the pound. Large specs were long 14,218 contracts and short 85,008 contracts, for a total net short of 70,790 contracts. Each futures contract is £62,500, so not exactly chump change. On Friday the pound had a decent rally, making it all the way back to 1.5164, and then selling off into the close to 1.5132. The open interest of Friday went down 7500 contracts on a little short covering rally. Monday gave us a rally that failed. We printed 1.5193 and then sold off, closing lower. What is interesting, however, is that the open interest soared 21.023 contracts higher on Monday, 14% of the total open interest.Complete Story »