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Live cattle: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. LIVE CATTLE - CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE, contracts of 40,000 pounds.

Speculators net long46,562

Change on the week−2,166

Rank in 2 years5th

Open interest390,003

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in Live cattle held a net long position of 46,562 contracts. That is 2,166 contracts fewer than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net short 35,417, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was long 150,883, so it has moved by 104,321 contracts since. Longs were 69.4% of speculative positions. 414 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 +46,562

36,622 9.4% 83,184 21.3%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net −35,417

179,361 46.0% 143,944 36.9%

Non-reportable (small traders) net −11,146

40,305 10.3% 29,159 7.5%

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 −4,335

Non-commercial short −2,169

Commercial long +4,595

Commercial short +2,021

Open interest +2,718

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"

93 net −35,417 (−9.1% of OI)

Near its most net long of the year.

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

5 net +46,562 (+11.9% of OI)

Near its most net short of the year.

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

95 net −11,146 (−2.9% of OI)

Near its most net long of the year.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	83,184	36,622	+46,562	−4,335
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	143,944	179,361	−35,417	+4,595
Non-reportable (small traders)	29,159	40,305	−11,146	–
Non-commercial spreading	133,715 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 Live cattle, 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	+46,562	−2,166	69.4%	390,003
6 Oct 2026	+48,729	+687	69.3%	387,285
29 Sep 2026	+48,041	+6,874	68.2%	422,762
22 Sep 2026	+41,168	−2,132	65.2%	414,465
15 Sep 2026	+43,299	+686	65.7%	400,386
8 Sep 2026	+42,614	+699	65.2%	418,196
1 Sep 2026	+41,915	−11,870	65.1%	447,131
25 Aug 2026	+53,785	−7,044	70.4%	440,731
18 Aug 2026	+60,829	−7,578	75.0%	406,254
11 Aug 2026	+68,407	+883	79.3%	380,363
4 Aug 2026	+67,525	−1,352	78.0%	427,008
28 Jul 2026	+68,876	−9,983	78.7%	445,137
21 Jul 2026	+78,860	−22,753	82.5%	443,042
14 Jul 2026	+101,613	−19,978	86.0%	432,767
7 Jul 2026	+121,591	−7,133	88.0%	423,855
30 Jun 2026	+128,723	−10,380	89.5%	430,431

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from 41,168 to 174,774, averaging 128,157. This week's 46,562 sits at the 5th 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
TSN Tyson Foods, Inc.	$54.90	+1.59%

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 agriculture markets

Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, legacy futures-only report, contract market code 057642. 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.