COT Positioning
What the biggest traders are betting on this week — how many expect prices to rise, how many expect a fall, and where the crowd has piled in too far.
How to read this page
Every Friday the US regulator publishes what the largest traders hold in each futures market. This page turns that report into three things you can read at a glance.
- Net — up-bets minus down-bets. Green means the crowd expects prices to rise, red means it expects a fall.
- 1w change — whether they added to that bet or backed away over the past week. The direction of travel usually matters more than the level.
- Bias— the same thing as one number from −100 to +100, measured against the last three years. Past ±75 the crowd is heavily one-sided.
Pick a group of markets below, then tap any row for the full picture.
Common questions
›What is the COT report?
The Commitment of Traders (COT) report is a weekly CFTC publication showing the futures positions held by different trader categories. It is released every Friday at 3:30pm ET with data as of the preceding Tuesday, and traders use it to see how speculators and hedgers are positioned in each market.
›What is the bias score?
The bias score puts the current net speculator position inside its trailing 3-year range and maps it to −100 through +100. −100 means the most short speculators have been in three years, +100 the most long, and 0 the middle of the range. Readings past ±75 flag stretched positioning that often precedes a turn, though they are not timing signals on their own.
›Why does this dashboard only show large speculators?
The COT report splits traders into several categories, but large speculators (non-commercials) are the hedge funds and money managers trading futures purely for profit, and they are the group whose positioning traders actually follow. We leave out commercials, small traders and the TFF breakdown so there is one clear read per market instead of five competing ones.
›What does net long or net short mean?
Net is simply large speculator long contracts minus their short contracts. A positive net means the group is collectively betting the market rises; a negative net means it is betting the market falls. What matters most is the direction of the change: speculators adding shorts two weeks running is a bearish signal, adding longs two weeks running is bullish.
›When does the COT data update?
The CFTC publishes new data every Friday around 3:30pm ET, covering positions as of Tuesday's close. This dashboard refreshes automatically after each release.