Silver: 88/100, crowded long. Small traders hold 26,906 long and 8,467 short contracts: 76.1% long. Week before: 74. A year before: 66. Three-year range: 6 to 100.

Crowded shortLeaning shortBalancedLeaning longCrowded long

050100

On 9 October 2026 small traders in COMEX silver futures were 76.1% long, a Crowd Gauge reading of 88 out of 100 (crowded long), according to TradingLookup's Crowd Gauge (October 2026).

• Data as of 9 October 2026
• All markets
• Method

The CFTC report released that day, positions as of the Tuesday before.

The contract behind the reading

Contract

COMEX silver futures

CFTC contract code

084691 1,937 weekly reports since 15 January 1986

Contract size

The contract unit shall be five thousand (5,000) troy ounces COMEX Group contract specs, read 14 October 2026

A long position is

a bet that the silver price rises.

In the composite

No: its own reading only

Positioning, not price. "Small traders" are everyone below the CFTC's reporting size ("non-reportable"): the closest public measure of retail positioning in COMEX silver futures. It also holds some small firms, so treat it as a proxy.

What today's reading means

Silver reads 88: small traders' long share is above about 88% of the last 156 weekly readings in this contract. The last crowded-short week (20 or less) was 3 July 2026.

Record readings for Silver

Highest Crowd Gauge reading

99.7 23 weeks, first on 5 August 2016, most recently 5 July 2024

Lowest Crowd Gauge reading

0.3 18 weeks, first on 3 October 2008, most recently 8 July 2022

Most long small traders have been

84.2% long positions as of 31 December 2019

Least long

51.1% long positions as of 7 May 2013

Readings from 6 January 2006 (1,084 weeks). Long share from 3 January 2006, in the CFTC contract above.

How often Silver hits an extreme

A new spell starts after 4 or more weeks outside the band, the same rule as the backtest's "episodes". Weeks are counted from the first published reading above.

History

Last 12 weekly readings

Change: points on the 0 to 100 scale against the week before. Positions are as of the Tuesday before each release.

Did extreme Silver readings come before price moves?

Not tested: no free daily price series we can use. The pooled result across the markets we could test is on the method page.

Sources for Silver

• CFTC COT (small traders)In the reading (contract code 084691). 1937 weekly reports since 15 January 1986.

• Gold 81/100
• Copper 65/100

Download every number: history CSV, COT observations CSV (CC BY 4.0). Spotted a mistake? Tell us.