By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Speculators' net long bets on the U.S. dollar rose to their largest since mid-December 2016, according to calculations by Reuters and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $26.68 billion in the week ended Oct. 2, from $23.17 billion the previous week.
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.
In a wider measure of dollar positioning 0#NETUSDFX= that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the U.S. dollar posted a net long position of $27.427 billion in the week ended Oct. 2, up from $24.796 billion a week earlier.
The dollar has been on a tear since the last week of September as the Federal Reserve flagged multiple interest rate hikes this year and in 2019. Over the last seven days, the dollar index has gained 2.1 percent.
On Friday, the dollar retreated slightly, but no one doubts that its trajectory is on the way up.
"The relative strength of the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve's resolve to tighten monetary policy is unquestionable," said Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy, at BK Asset Management in New York.
She added that the dollar on any dip, is very much a buy.
In the cryptocurrency market, speculators' net short position on bitcoin Cboe futures rose to 1,297 contracts 0#1CFTC1330E1 in the latest week, from 1,173 the previous week, data showed.
Bitcoin on Friday slipped 0.1 percent to $6,539.30 BTC=BTSP on the Bitstamp platform.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) $12.542 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
56,074
47,253 Short
170,120
131,972 Net
-114,046
-84,719 EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) $1.025 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
164,738
172,426 Short
171,839
168,730 Net
-7,101
3,696 POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) $4.813 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
30,786
34,768 Short
90,126
101,846 Net
-59,340
-67,078 SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) $1.703 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
11,848
10,394 Short
25,250
26,477 Net
-13,402
-16,083 CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) $1.442 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
41,940
31,812 Short
60,424
51,344 Net
-18,484
-19,532 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) $5.154 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
20,470
21,888 Short
92,188
93,949 Net
-71,718
-72,061 MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) $-1.964 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
135,649
117,315 Short
61,820
65,917 Net
73,829
51,398 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars) $2.017 billion
02 Oct 2018
Prior week
week
Long
10,678
10,906 Short
41,274
42,741 Net
-30,596
-31,835