Stop this if you feel like you've heard this one before,

but sterling is feeling the heat

as momentum for a fresh leg lower appears to be building.

The currency was, of course, slammed by the result of the UK's EU referendum in June.

After some underwhelming mini recoveries it's slumped again last week

as the Bank of England unleashed its latest package of stimulus.

This week, you guessed it, it's taking a new blow,

sinking back under $1.30 to the dollar.

Normally, traders and investors balk at bets that are too obvious,

but this doesn't seem to be the case this time.

Pushing this along, the Fed is expected to raise rates again as soon as December,

maybe even sooner,

while the Bank of England is not expected to raise rates for some 70 months.

That makes it just a no-brainer to sell the pound.

Many punters were already doing just that.

Data drawing on activity in the future's market

shows that bets against sterling were already at record levels in the week to last Tuesday.

But, currency hedge funds more broadly did not appear to be committed.

Their returns have been under pressure for most of this year

and they're still under pressure now,

suggesting that some are still sitting back, sharpening their claws and waiting for a new opportunity to pounce.

And there seems no reason to pull back from their assessments

that the pounds in line could fall the mid-$1.20s against the dollar and possibly as low as $1.10 through next year.

There could be some excessive post-referendum pessimism at play here,

but no influential analysts or investors have presented a case for buying since... well, June 22.

This may of course prove to be part of the solution by helping exports,

something the BOE has alluded to

but new trade figures show that imports remain much larger,

and in the month of June they grew much more than exports.

The price tag will keep growing on that unless the trade mix alters fast.