RBOB gasoline: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. GASOLINE RBOB - NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE, contracts of 42,000 u.s. gallons.

Speculators net long75,323

Change on the week+4,924

Rank in 2 years88th

Open interest341,577

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in RBOB gasoline held a net long position of 75,323 contracts. That is 4,924 contracts more than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net short 89,866, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was long 35,068, so it has moved by 40,255 contracts since. Longs were 73.1% of speculative positions. 237 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 +75,323

44,024 12.9% 119,347 34.9%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net −89,866

229,629 67.2% 139,763 40.9%

Non-reportable (small traders) net +14,544

12,976 3.8% 27,520 8.1%

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 +223

Non-commercial short −4,701

Commercial long −5,060

Commercial short +877

Open interest −8,466

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"

31 net −89,866 (−26.3% of OI)

Mid-range.

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

60 net +75,323 (+22.1% of OI)

Mid-range.

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

74 net +14,544 (+4.3% of OI)

Mid-range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	119,347	44,024	+75,323	+223
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	139,763	229,629	−89,866	−5,060
Non-reportable (small traders)	27,520	12,976	+14,544	–
Non-commercial spreading	54,948 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 RBOB gasoline, 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	+75,323	+4,924	73.1%	341,577
6 Oct 2026	+70,399	+5,312	71.0%	350,043
29 Sep 2026	+65,087	−4,137	70.2%	343,894
22 Sep 2026	+69,223	+6,164	70.6%	362,848
15 Sep 2026	+63,059	−10,133	71.5%	360,067
8 Sep 2026	+73,193	+3,564	73.2%	366,612
1 Sep 2026	+69,628	+5,440	72.1%	355,460
25 Aug 2026	+64,187	+6,241	71.9%	349,514
18 Aug 2026	+57,947	+3,596	70.9%	338,655
11 Aug 2026	+54,351	−4,051	70.7%	328,036
4 Aug 2026	+58,400	−3,903	72.6%	307,160
28 Jul 2026	+62,304	+1,312	72.6%	323,963
21 Jul 2026	+60,992	+3,467	71.1%	333,527
14 Jul 2026	+57,525	−574	71.1%	327,876
7 Jul 2026	+58,099	+3,870	70.1%	319,106
30 Jun 2026	+54,230	+2,250	70.4%	304,323

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from 18,615 to 102,336, averaging 56,375. This week's 75,323 sits at the 88th 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
MPC Marathon Petroleum Corp	$478.07	+0.24%
PSX Phillips 66	$293.17	+1.37%
VLO Valero Energy Corp	$444.71	+0.15%

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 111659. 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.