LONDON, July 26 Reuters The pound rose on Friday but was still headed for a second consecutive weekly fall against the dollar after a week of turmoil across global markets hit higheryielding assets and as investors switch focus to next week39;s Bank of England meeting.

The pound, which hit oneyear highs last week above 1.31, is heading for a 0.5 decline against the dollar this week.

It39;s still on track for a gain of 1.6 this month and remains this year39;s topperforming G10 currency against the dollar, with a 1.1 rise, compared with runnerup the euro , which is down 1.67 against the dollar this year.

But the recent swell of volatility across markets has hit the pound harder than currencies that are lower yielding, such as the yen or the Swiss franc.

Sterling was up 0.14 on the day at 1.28685.

Futures traders currently hold the biggest bullish bet on sterling in history, according to weekly data from the U.S. markets regulator .

Speculators currently hold a net long position worth 10.77 billion that has almost trebled since the start of this month.

In an environment such as the one this week, when currencies with lower interest rates tend to perform better, sterling has come under pressure.

Broker IG notes that its proprietary retail trader data shows just 37.63 of traders are netlong, with a ratio of 1.66 short traders for every long trader.

In theory, this would suggest the pound has scope for more gains, given the majority of the retail market is short, but…