Speculators in the forex market are now short the Japanese yen as of April 5, according to the weekly COT report. In the previous week, they were slightly long.

Another notable swing is in the pound sterling; longs jumped to 32,414 contracts from just 743 in the prior week.

Meanwhile, shorts in the US dollar slipped, although it remains above 200,000 for the 9th straight week.

The COT (Commitments of Traders) report, released each week on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, shows the net positions of speculators in the futures market (including currency futures) as of Tuesday of that week.

Extreme positions by speculators – such as the current short US dollar position – leave the market vulnerable to sharp reversals.

Below is RBC Capital Markets’ breakdown of the April 5 COT report:

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