Hedge funds halved their short positions on the yen before Ueda's statement

Hedge funds sharply reduced their short positions on the Japanese yen before U.S. Treasury Secretary Bement publicly expressed his stance as a "market maker." Even before Bement addressed traders, urging them to prove their determination in pushing up the yen exchange rate, hedge funds had already made significant downward adjustments to their short yen positions. According to data disclosed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday, leveraged traders halved their bearish bets on the yen in the week ending September 8. The timing of this position adjustment coincided closely with Bement's controversial remarks. At that time, Bement publicly told market traders that he welcomed them to bet against him, adding that he had access to certain information regarding the Bank of Japan and yen-related policies, positioning himself as the market's "market maker."So far this week, the yen has risen by a cumulative 1.7%, continuing its prior upward momentum. As of 4:15 p.m. New York time on Friday, the USD/JPY exchange rate was quoted at approximately 153.68. At the same time, related trading data also showed that, as of the week ending September 8, the group of speculative foreign exchange traders—including asset management institutions and non-commercial traders—had reduced their bullish dollar bets for six consecutive weeks, with total positions declining to $19.4 billion.