COT report, October 20, 2026
Net futures positioning of the largest speculator group in 6 markets, as the CFTC reported it for this week. These figures are fixed: they are computed from this report and the ones before it, never from anything published since.
Report as of October 20, 2026. Release: Friday, October 23, 2026, 15:30 ET, on the CFTC’s release schedule. That is the CFTC’s schedule, not a recorded release time: the CFTC file carries no release date.
Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders (US government, public domain — redistribution permitted). Read the same week from the CFTC’s own file, one row per market: S&P 500 · Nasdaq-100 · Euro FX · Bitcoin (CME) · Gold · WTI Crude Oil. The whole files, unfiltered: Traders in Financial Futures · Disaggregated (futures only) · CFTC release page
What changed this week
- S&P 500: net position of leveraged funds rose by 37,649 contracts, to net short 372,869 (+37,649 week over week).
- Nasdaq-100: net position of leveraged funds rose by 14,203 contracts, to net short 7,688 (+14,203 week over week).
- Euro FX: net short 68,840 — none of its weekly nets of the past three years was more short, the bottom of its own range.
- Bitcoin (CME): net short 4,942 is less short than 99% of its weekly nets of the past three years: still net short, near the top of its own range.
| Market | Trader group | Net position | Week over week | 156-week rank | Weeks since this extreme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | Leveraged funds | -372,869 | +37,649 | 35% | 1 (as low) |
| Nasdaq-100 | Leveraged funds | -7,688 | +14,203 | 90% Net short, near 3-year high | 47 (as high) |
| Euro FX | Leveraged funds | -68,840 | -839 | 0% Crowded short | None in 156 weeks (as low) |
| Bitcoin (CME) | Leveraged funds | -4,942 | +902 | 99% Net short, near 3-year high | None in 156 weeks (as high) |
| Gold | Managed money | 104,206 | -2,883 | 24% | 21 (as low) |
| WTI Crude Oil | Managed money | 36,187 | -4,387 | 13% | 41 (as low) |
This is the newest report. The evergreen page /cot/weekly currently shows the same week and will move on at the next release.
How this is calculated
Net position is long minus short, in futures contracts, for the largest speculator group the CFTC reports in that market. Futures only; options are not included. Those are two named columns of the CFTC row linked above:
- Leveraged Funds in the Traders in Financial Futures file:
lev_money_positions_long − lev_money_positions_short - Managed Money in the Disaggregated file:
m_money_positions_long_all − m_money_positions_short_all
Week over week is this week’s net minus the previous report’s net for the same contract.
The 156-week rank is a plain empirical rank, not a z-score and not a fitted distribution: take the 156 weekly nets ending at this report (156 weeks is three years), count how many are below this week’s, divide by 156, round. A rank of 90 means 90% of those weeks sat below this one. Below 156 observations the column prints an em dash and no label is derived from it.
Weeks since positioning was last this extreme is counted from the same 156 nets. When the rank is 50 or above it is the number of weeks back to the most recent earlier week whose net was greater than or equal to this week’s; below 50 it is the most recent week whose net was less than or equal. The page marks which side it counted. If no week in the window qualifies, the page says so instead of printing a number. Below 156 observations, where the rank prints an em dash, it prints “TODO: needs feed”: the side comes from the rank, and the file this page reads does not hold the full window.
Labels. The rank and the sign of the net choose the label. A rank at or above 90 prints “Crowded long” when the net is long and “Net short, near 3-year high” when it is short or zero; a rank at or below 10 prints “Crowded short” when the net is short and “Net long, near 3-year low” when it is long or zero. Everything between prints nothing at all, and so does a rank the em dash replaces.
What this cannot tell you
- Only positions at or above the CFTC’s reporting levels are sorted into categories. Every participant below them appears only in the report’s one non-reportable total, so no category figure here includes them.
- A trader’s category reflects their main business, not the purpose of any one position. A fund classified as Leveraged Funds may be hedging; a producer may be speculating.
- Futures only. Options positions, and any exposure held off US futures exchanges, are not in this file at all — for currencies in particular, the futures book is a fraction of the market.
- This report describes positions held on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The CFTC’s schedule put its release on Friday, October 23, 2026, three days later, and the positions may already have changed by then.
- A high or low rank says how stretched positioning is against its own recent history. It says nothing about when, whether, or in which direction that unwinds.
Earlier reports
What the report is and who files it: the COT report explainer. How every figure here is computed: the methodology.
Research only, not financial advice. Meaterm is a research and analysis platform: it does not execute trades, does not manage money and does not make recommendations. Positioning data is sentiment context for your own work, not a signal to buy, sell or hold anything. See the risk disclaimer and the positioning methodology.