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British pound: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. BRITISH POUND - CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE, contracts of gbp 62,500.

Speculators net short106,162

Change on the week+1,831

Rank in 2 years3rd

Open interest289,928

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in British pound held a net short position of 106,162 contracts. That is 1,831 contracts more than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net long 120,614, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was short 15,941, so it has moved by 90,221 contracts since. Longs were 23.2% of speculative positions. 107 traders reported.

Bar charts in detail

1. Who is long and who is short, in the week to 13 October 2026

Short positions extend to the left in red, long positions to the right in blue, each scaled against the biggest single side in this market. Percentages are of open interest.

Non-commercial (speculators) net −106,162

152,012 52.4% 45,850 15.8%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net +120,614

89,057 30.7% 209,671 72.3%

Non-reportable (small traders) net −14,452

37,608 13.0% 23,156 8.0%

2. How the week's change was made

Change in each side since the previous report, as published by the CFTC. A rising net can come from longs being added, shorts being closed, or both; this shows which.

Non-commercial long +1,694

Non-commercial short −137

Commercial long −9,784

Commercial short −7,946

Open interest −11,727

3. Speculative net position, week by week

Last 52 weeks. Blue bars are net long, red bars net short. Hover a bar for the week and the value.

4. Weekly change in the speculative net

Blue bars: speculators added to their net position that week. Red bars: they reduced it. Tall bars of either colour are the unusual weeks.

5. Open interest, week by week

Total contracts outstanding. Rising open interest means money is entering the contract; falling means positions are being closed.

Where each group sits against its own year

0 means a group is at its most net short of the last 52 weeks, 100 at its most net long. It says where positioning is, not what price does next.

Commercials (producers, hedgers) the group classic COT analysis calls "smart money"

96 net +120,614 (+41.6% of OI)

Near its most net long of the year.

Speculators (funds, managed money) trend-following money with no commercial business in it

2 net −106,162 (−36.6% of OI)

At its most net short of the year.

Small traders (non-reportable) the group classic analysis calls "dumb money"

14 net −14,452 (−5.0% of OI)

In the bottom quarter of its range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	45,850	152,012	−106,162	+1,694
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	209,671	89,057	+120,614	−9,784
Non-reportable (small traders)	23,156	37,608	−14,452	–
Non-commercial spreading	11,250 on both sides		0	–

Spreading is a speculator holding an equal long and short in different months, so it nets to zero and is listed apart. The three net figures should sum to zero, because a futures market cannot be net long or net short overall, only differently distributed between the people in it. In the Commission's published figures they occasionally miss by a contract or two: for the week shown the three nets sum to 0. That is rounding in the source, not an error on this page, and we leave the CFTC's numbers as published rather than adjusting one to make the column balance.

The last two years

Speculative net position in British pound, Oct 2024 to Oct 2026. Above the line is net long, below it net short.

Week	Spec net	Change	Long share	Open interest
13 Oct 2026	−106,162	+1,831	23.2%	289,928
6 Oct 2026	−107,993	−5,905	22.5%	301,655
29 Sep 2026	−102,088	−11,491	22.6%	286,840
22 Sep 2026	−90,597	−29,306	27.5%	272,081
15 Sep 2026	−61,290	−3,686	34.8%	336,070
8 Sep 2026	−57,603	−8,029	36.1%	340,657
1 Sep 2026	−49,574	−10,045	38.8%	342,054
25 Aug 2026	−39,529	+14,437	41.5%	342,220
18 Aug 2026	−53,966	+2,356	37.3%	307,213
11 Aug 2026	−56,322	+3,257	35.3%	276,362
4 Aug 2026	−59,579	+10,427	32.6%	267,615
28 Jul 2026	−70,007	−11,956	31.4%	290,496
21 Jul 2026	−58,051	+14,423	34.4%	285,858
14 Jul 2026	−72,474	+17,518	29.3%	285,260
7 Jul 2026	−89,991	+15,212	24.6%	301,829
30 Jun 2026	−105,203	+3,369	20.1%	320,579

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from -108,572 to 74,128, averaging -22,587. This week's -106,162 sits at the 3rd percentile of that range. Two years is a short window, and a position that looks far from its recent average can stay there for months. It describes where positioning has been, not where price goes.

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What this report is, and what it is not

The CFTC requires anyone holding more than a set number of contracts in a US futures market to report their position. Every Friday afternoon the Commission publishes the totals as they stood at Tuesday's close, split by the kind of trader holding them. The gap between Tuesday and Friday is deliberate and cannot be shortened: the figures are always three days old when you first see them.

Non-commercial traders have no commercial use for the underlying. Commercial traders do: a miner selling forward, an airline hedging fuel, a mill buying wheat. Non-reportable is everybody below the reporting threshold. The categories describe why someone is registered, not how clever they are, and the common framing of commercials as "smart money" does not follow from the data: a producer hedging output sells into a rising market because that is their business, not because they predict a fall.

Nothing on this page is a signal. Positioning shows how crowded a trade was on a particular Tuesday. It does not say when a crowd disperses, and crowded positions have stayed crowded for many months at a time in most of these markets.

Other currencies markets

Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, legacy futures-only report, contract market code 096742. Net positions, long share and the two-year rank are our arithmetic on the Commission's published figures; every input is in the tables above. Educational only, not financial advice.