Forex futures market speculative positions data from the CFTC commitment of traders report as of the close on 22 December 2015:

  • EUR short 161K vs 160k short prior week.
  • GBP short 27K vs. 17K short prior week
  • JPY short 30K vs. 26K short prior week.
  • CAD short 52K vs. 51K short prior week.
  • CHF long 3K vs 2K long prior week.
  • AUD short 20K vs. 10K short prior week
  • NZD flat vs. 1K short prior week
  • Full report

The biggest surprise over the past two weeks was BOE hawk Martin Weale saying he won't vote for a rate hike because of subdued wage pressures. Despite looming year end, that's inspired some fresh GBP shorts.

To start the week the pound was among the worst performers as it fell 34 pips to 1.4879.