Commitments of Traders (COT)
Official CFTC ReportsMarket Positioning Overview Click any asset to inspect historical positioning, divergence, and charts.
| Market / Asset | Category | Report Date | Managed Money Net | Managed Money % OI | Weekly Shift | COT Index (1Y) | Institutional Bias |
|---|
S&P 500 (E-Mini)
As of Tuesday, Aug 25, 2026Measures where current speculator net positioning sits relative to its historical high and low. Pinning near 100 indicates crowded longs; pinning near 0 indicates crowded shorts.
Measures the divergence between Non-Commercial speculators and Commercial hedgers. Historical extremes in the Gap Index frequently precede major cyclical trend reversals.
Institutional Positioning Guide: How to Read the COT Report
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Commercials vs Non-Commercials
Commercial traders are physical producers and consumers (e.g. oil refiners, gold miners, grain elevators) hedging underlying business risk. They trade against price trends to lock in forward cash flows. Non-Commercial traders are professional money managers, CTAs, and hedge funds speculating for capital gains. They follow trends and are the primary source of sentiment momentum.
Net % of Open Interest
Comparing raw contract numbers across markets is misleading because the S&P 500 has millions of open contracts while Coffee has tens of thousands.
By evaluating (Longs − Shorts) / Total Open Interest × 100, we normalize positioning to a percentage of total market size,
allowing fair comparison across all asset classes.
The COT Index & Extremes
The COT Index scales net positioning from 0 to 100 over a rolling lookback (6M, 1Y, 3Y). Readings near 100 mean speculators are as bullish as they have been all year, signaling an overcrowded trade. Readings near 0 indicate heavy shorting, creating prime conditions for a short squeeze.
Divergence Signals
Bullish Divergence: Price makes a lower low while speculator net positioning makes a higher low — smart money is absorbing selling pressure. Bearish Divergence: Price makes a higher high while net positioning fades — the rally is running out of committed institutional buyers.