Speculators raised bullish bets on the US dollar to their highest in about six weeks, according to Reuters calculations and data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $29.77 billion in the week ended July 21 from $27.29 billion the previous week. Speculators raised net dollar long positions for a third straight week.
To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while being short is a bet its value will decline. The dollar index so far this month is up 1.8 percent after declining 1.5 percent in June. Net short positions on the euro, meanwhile, increased to 112,976 contracts from 107,781. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and the Canadian and Australian dollars.