COT report this week: Commitment of Traders, small traders

By Sydney Stones (data and method lead) Last updated 9 October 2026 Data read by our script

How we got this

How: Read by our script from the CFTC's Legacy futures-only Commitments of Traders report released 9 October 2026 (positions as of 6 October 2026). How we check How we make money Corrections

The small-trader side of the CFTC's weekly report for 21 contracts, with our Crowd Gauge reading for each.

Small ("non-reportable") traders are the closest public measure of retail positioning.

In the CFTC's Commitments of Traders report for positions as of 6 October 2026, small traders were most long Ether (84.8% of their positions long) and least long Swiss franc (CHF/USD) (30.3%), according to TradingLookup's Crowd Gauge (October 2026).

Positions as of: Tuesday 6 October 2026
Released by the CFTC: 9 October 2026
Contracts: 21

Change = against the week before. Reading = the Crowd Gauge (0 to 100, against each market's last three years). Bitcoin and Ether each have two contracts: each row shows that contract's own reading, and the market's reading is the average of the two.

Stock indices
Contract	Long	Short	Net	Net change	Long share	Reading
S&P 500	248,117	137,112	+111,005	+3,787	64.4%	77
Nasdaq-100	42,031	31,708	+10,323	−21	57.0%	55
Russell 2000	31,470	23,909	+7,561	+333	56.8%	37

Metals
Contract	Long	Short	Net	Net change	Long share	Reading
Gold	50,464	16,272	+34,192	+1,857	75.6%	81
Silver	26,906	8,467	+18,439	+512	76.1%	88
Copper	17,160	8,671	+8,489	−941	66.4%	65

Energy
Contract	Long	Short	Net	Net change	Long share	Reading
WTI crude oil	77,189	49,791	+27,398	−5,757	60.8%	59
Natural gas	55,149	38,557	+16,592	−925	58.9%	64

Currencies (forex)
Contract	Long	Short	Net	Net change	Long share	Reading
Euro (EUR/USD)	83,737	56,429	+27,308	+4,629	59.7%	30
Japanese yen (JPY/USD)	34,535	35,111	−576	−1,121	49.6%	32
British pound (GBP/USD)	20,627	34,883	−14,256	−4,449	37.2%	4
Swiss franc (CHF/USD)	10,391	23,937	−13,546	+1,977	30.3%	20
Canadian dollar (CAD/USD)	27,234	40,573	−13,339	−2,446	40.2%	11
Australian dollar (AUD/USD)	32,396	18,900	+13,496	−3,395	63.2%	69
New Zealand dollar (NZD/USD)	4,404	6,438	−2,034	−355	40.6%	35
Mexican peso (MXN/USD)	5,601	3,601	+2,000	−195	60.9%	32
US dollar index	4,002	1,742	+2,260	+267	69.7%	95

Crypto
Contract	Long	Short	Net	Net change	Long share	Reading
Bitcoin (CME standard)	1,177	711	+466	+161	62.3%	75
Bitcoin (CME micro)	6,631	1,752	+4,879	+723	79.1%	91
Ether (CME standard)	959	449	+510	−9	68.1%	71
Ether (CME micro)	1,829	327	+1,502	−105	84.8%	64

How to read the COT report

Compare long share, not contractsLong and short are contract counts, so they don't compare across markets. Long ÷ (long + short) does.
Small traders usually lean longSo the Crowd Gauge compares each market with its own history, not with 50%.
Three days old on releasePositions as of Tuesday, published Friday afternoon US Eastern time (later after US holidays).
Small traders onlyThe CFTC report also covers large speculators ("non-commercial") and hedgers ("commercial"). Source: publicreporting.cftc.gov.

Data, not advice. What happened after extreme readings: our test.

COT report this week: Commitment of Traders, small traders

How to read the COT report

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