COT Report Positioning
Speculator and hedger net positioning for 11 major futures markets as of 2026-08-11, divided by open interest and scored against each market's own history — up to 1,128 weeks of it. Straight from the CFTC, with the method and its limits stated rather than implied.
Read this before using it
Stretched positioning is a description of who holds what, not a forecast. Extremes can persist for months and have no reliable turning-point timing.
Most stretched right now
Markets where speculator net positioning is at least 1.5 standard deviations from its own long-run average. That is a statement about how unusual the position is, not about what happens next.
Bitcoin
CryptoCopper
MetalsGold
MetalsNasdaq 100 (mini)
Equity indexEquity index
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 (E-mini) | 2,119,506 | +0.53% | +0.41 | -6.72% | -0.68 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
| Nasdaq 100 (mini) | 282,662 | -13.9% | -1.58 | +6.18% | +0.94 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
Metals
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 400,309 | +54.44% | +1.69 | -63.11% | -1.69 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
| Silver | 115,127 | +20.54% | -0.15 | -38.2% | -0.38 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
| Copper | 297,047 | +27.06% | +1.87 | -30.72% | -1.86 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
Energy
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crude oil (WTI) | 797,158 | -0.79% | -1.07 | +0.53% | +1.08 | 890 wks from 2009-07-28 |
Currencies
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Euro FX | 801,884 | -7.48% | -0.37 | +3.64% | +0.23 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
| Japanese yen | 391,874 | -10.74% | +0.04 | +12.45% | -0.11 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
Crypto
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | 21,185 | +18.24% | +2.26 | -16.78% | -3.32 | 436 wks from 2018-04-10 |
Agriculture
| Market | Open interest | Speculator net | Speculator z | Hedger net | Hedger z | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corn | 1,684,065 | +14.54% | +0.34 | -11.76% | -0.56 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
| Wheat (SRW) | 475,566 | -5.24% | -0.08 | +4.78% | -0.33 | 1,128 wks from 2005-01-04 |
Method
Net position (long minus short) divided by that week's total open interest, so a market's own growth does not read as a positioning change.
The latest normalised net position scored against the mean and population standard deviation of every earlier week in the pulled history. It measures how unusual current positioning is FOR THAT MARKET, not across markets.
Weeks with missing fields or zero open interest are skipped, never filled.
Series are keyed on the CFTC contract market code rather than the contract's display name, because the name is not stable. The E-mini S&P 500 has filed under three different names since 1997; keying on the current one would silently cut its history to four years and score today's positioning against a much shorter idea of "normal" than gold or the yen get. Each code was checked against its real date range rather than assumed — corn trades under 002602, while the 002601 a name lookup returns first was retired in 1997.
Limitations
Not a signal
Stretched positioning is a description of who holds what, not a forecast. Extremes can persist for months and have no reliable turning-point timing.
Mirror image
Commercial and non-commercial nets move nearly opposite by construction: every long is somebody's short. Treating them as two independent pieces of evidence double-counts one fact.
Commercials are hedgers
A commercial short is usually a producer hedging output, not a bearish view. Reading commercial positioning as a market opinion misreads the category.
Legacy report
This is the legacy futures-only report. The disaggregated and financial (TFF) reports split these categories further and will not match line for line.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Commitments of Traders report?+
A weekly CFTC publication breaking down open interest in US futures markets by trader category. Published each Friday at 15:30 ET for positions held the preceding Tuesday, so the newest figure is already three days old on release.
What is the difference between commercial and non-commercial?+
Commercials are hedgers — producers, processors and users of the underlying, whose positions are driven by hedging need rather than a market view. Non-commercials are large speculators taking a directional position. A commercial short in a commodity is usually a producer hedging output, not a bearish opinion, which is the most commonly misread part of the report.
What does the z-score mean here?+
The latest normalised net position scored against the mean and population standard deviation of every earlier week in the pulled history. It measures how unusual current positioning is FOR THAT MARKET, not across markets. A score of +2 means current net positioning is two standard deviations above that market's own average, so it is unusual by its own standards — it does not mean the position is large compared with another market.
Why divide by open interest?+
Net position (long minus short) divided by that week's total open interest, so a market's own growth does not read as a positioning change. A net position of 300,000 contracts is enormous in one market and unremarkable in another, and markets grow over decades, so raw contract counts are not comparable across either dimension.
Is extreme positioning a trading signal?+
Stretched positioning is a description of who holds what, not a forecast. Extremes can persist for months and have no reliable turning-point timing.
Why do commercial and speculator scores mirror each other?+
Commercial and non-commercial nets move nearly opposite by construction: every long is somebody's short. Treating them as two independent pieces of evidence double-counts one fact.
Get the data
The full artefact — every weekly observation for all 11 markets, both series, plus the provenance and method blocks — is served as static JSON.
Download cot-positioning.jsonGenerated 2026-08-20T23:38:09+00:00. Source: US Commodity Futures Trading Commission — Commitments of Traders (legacy, futures only). US government work, public domain (17 U.S.C. 105).
Related tools
Source: US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by the CFTC. Positioning data describes who held what as of the report date; nothing here is investment advice, a forecast, or a trading signal.