Dollar pressured lower amid hedge fund selling

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar has seen selling across the board, according to analysts at Bank of America, and further losses remain a possibility.

“Our proprietary flows show USD selling across the board so far in August, particularly from hedge funds and corporates,” analysts at Bank of America said, in a note dated Aug. 19.

“EUR, JPY and GBP have benefited the most, but more recently also high beta G10 currencies and EM FX. The hedge fund long USD position remains vulnerable.” 

Despite sterling being the weakest currency in G10 so far in August, our investor proprietary flows remain positive, with hedge funds in particular offering strong support.  

“GBP positioning is long, but not stretched, with hedge funds having more room,” Bank of America added. 

 Last week was the first in which the bank’s proprietary EM FX turned positive since the recent market turbulence. 

“Hedge funds bought INR, KRW and ZAR—they sold HUF. Real money bought BRL, IDR, SGD, PLN and CZK—they sold CNH, and ILS,” the bank said. 

“The overall EM FX positioning is slightly short, with the exception of Asia where it is clearly short after the recent market sell-off. The hedge fund short EM FX position also appears stretched,” BoA added.