The long Canadian dollar trade became the largest position held against the U.S. dollar in the period ending March 9, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Speculators now hold a total of 61,400 CAD contracts, or US$5.98-billion, figures released on Friday show.
While this reflects a more bullish view on the loonie as it moves towards parity with the greenback, it remains short of the position when the Canadian dollar moved through parity in October 2007. At that time, the net long CAD position stood at 83,000 contracts, or US$8.3-billion, according to Scotia Capital currency strategist Camilla Sutton.
She also noted that the net long oil position increased to 109,300 contracts, which indicates that the market is turning more bullish oil in tandem with the Canadian dollar.