The latest Commitments of Traders report was released, covering positions through Tuesday
The 3-Year Min/Max Screen shows that "smart money" commercial hedgers added aggressively to long exposure in the Nikkei. At an average net long position of over 20,000 contracts over the past 20 weeks, their long exposure meets or exceeds the two prior extremes in mid-2008 and the summer of 2012. They also established a new multi-year long extreme in 5-year Treasuries. Hedgers used the market weakness to reduced short positions in the S&P 500 by about $15 billion but they continue to hold historically high short exposure. They sold gold and other metals, now holding nearly 90,000 contracts net short in precious metals, nearing the all-time record of a little over 100,000 contracts.
