WTI crude oil: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. CRUDE OIL, LIGHT SWEET-WTI - ICE FUTURES EUROPE, contracts of 1,000 barrels.

Speculators net long6,643

Change on the week−10,159

Rank in 2 years24th

Open interest1,016,495

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in WTI crude oil held a net long position of 6,643 contracts. That is 10,159 contracts fewer than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net short 6,488, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was long 59,792, so it has moved by 53,149 contracts since. Longs were 52.4% of speculative positions. 117 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 +6,643

65,868 6.5% 72,511 7.1%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net −6,488

642,535 63.2% 636,047 62.6%

Non-reportable (small traders) net −156

14,964 1.5% 14,808 1.5%

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 −5,485

Non-commercial short +4,674

Commercial long +26,084

Commercial short +13,382

Open interest +18,861

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"

69 net −6,488 (−0.6% of OI)

Mid-range.

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

29 net +6,643 (+0.7% of OI)

Mid-range.

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

43 net −156 (−0.0% of OI)

Mid-range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	72,511	65,868	+6,643	−5,485
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	636,047	642,535	−6,488	+26,084
Non-reportable (small traders)	14,808	14,964	−156	–
Non-commercial spreading	293,129 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 -1. 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 WTI crude oil, 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	+6,643	−10,159	52.4%	1,016,495
6 Oct 2026	+16,802	−6,733	56.0%	997,634
29 Sep 2026	+23,536	+2,593	58.2%	979,269
22 Sep 2026	+20,942	+2,986	57.7%	961,132
15 Sep 2026	+17,956	+7,083	56.4%	1,058,139
8 Sep 2026	+10,873	−579	54.3%	1,026,140
1 Sep 2026	+11,451	−5,616	54.3%	1,031,178
25 Aug 2026	+17,068	+81	56.8%	1,017,205
18 Aug 2026	+16,985	−6,868	56.2%	1,054,647
11 Aug 2026	+23,853	−2,733	58.6%	1,097,720
4 Aug 2026	+26,587	−5,604	59.3%	1,070,567
28 Jul 2026	+32,189	−10,570	60.4%	1,031,278
21 Jul 2026	+42,761	−8,268	63.2%	1,030,275
14 Jul 2026	+51,028	+15,405	65.5%	1,068,132
7 Jul 2026	+35,623	+2,628	62.3%	1,047,108
30 Jun 2026	+32,995	−10,089	61.5%	1,048,455

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from -27,128 to 85,892, averaging 26,641. This week's 6,643 sits at the 24th 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.

Related on StocksXray

S&P 500 companies that operate in this industry. Their share prices respond to far more than futures positioning, so this list is a starting point for research, not a link between the two.

Company	Price	1D
CVX Chevron Corp	$224.99	+2.59%
COP Conocophillips	$146.51	+3.37%
EOG Eog Resources Inc	$158.01	+4.23%
XOM ExxonMobil Holdings Corp	$178.98	+2.46%
OXY Occidental Petroleum Corp	$62.38	+2.82%

Market Compass: oil sensitivity

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 energy markets

Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, legacy futures-only report, contract market code 067411. 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.