BUZZ-COMMENT-Traders have forgotten that the trend is their friend

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Traders have forgotten that the trend is their friend, and few trends are more compelling than that for the dollar, which reached an almost 20-year high in January.

In January the trade-weighted value of the dollar reached 134.87 - the highest for available data since 2006 - extending a rise that began in 2011 at 92.41, which has added over 44% to the greenback's value.

Despite huge gains, traders have been reluctant to join the trend with only one significant wager currently held on the dollar rising versus the Canadian dollar and no other significant bets.

Several short positions are in evidence versus the Japanese yen, Brazilian real and Mexican peso, and traders have been paring what were already modest bets versus eight of the nine currencies in a Reuters poll.

Of those, China's yuan and India's rupee have fallen to record lows this year, while three others are very close to one. Brazil's real has only recently recovered after dropping to an all-time low.

Among the majors, traders only ventured into a tiny bet against the pound after it has collapsed from 1.3434 to 1.2100, and euro shorts are modest given the swift plunge from 1.1214 to 1.0125.

Clearly it would be far harder to make money betting against this trend than with it, and until traders embrace it, there is more reason to expect it to continue.

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