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Russell 2000: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. RUSSELL E-MINI - CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE, russel 2000 index x $50.

Speculators net short61,011

Change on the week+27,313

Rank in 2 years18th

Open interest458,058

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in Russell 2000 held a net short position of 61,011 contracts. That is 27,313 contracts more than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net long 47,847, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was short 52,382, so it has moved by 8,629 contracts since. Longs were 39.3% of speculative positions. 323 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 −61,011

173,146 37.8% 112,135 24.5%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net +47,847

242,432 52.9% 290,279 63.4%

Non-reportable (small traders) net +13,163

21,115 4.6% 34,278 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 +24,398

Non-commercial short −2,915

Commercial long −8,588

Commercial short +23,972

Open interest +21,791

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"

71 net +47,847 (+10.4% of OI)

Mid-range.

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

25 net −61,011 (−13.3% of OI)

In the bottom quarter of its range.

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

64 net +13,163 (+2.9% of OI)

Mid-range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	112,135	173,146	−61,011	+24,398
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	290,279	242,432	+47,847	−8,588
Non-reportable (small traders)	34,278	21,115	+13,163	–
Non-commercial spreading	21,365 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 Russell 2000, 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	−61,011	+27,313	39.3%	458,058
6 Oct 2026	−88,323	−10,426	33.3%	436,266
29 Sep 2026	−77,897	−2,334	34.8%	442,777
22 Sep 2026	−75,563	−4,126	34.3%	424,881
15 Sep 2026	−71,437	+11,484	34.4%	513,219
8 Sep 2026	−82,921	−11,705	30.6%	442,143
1 Sep 2026	−71,216	−19,338	32.1%	439,393
25 Aug 2026	−51,879	−9,355	35.8%	423,505
18 Aug 2026	−42,523	+204	39.2%	436,563
11 Aug 2026	−42,727	−7,751	39.2%	429,726
4 Aug 2026	−34,977	−18,790	40.6%	428,579
28 Jul 2026	−16,187	−8,950	45.6%	428,489
21 Jul 2026	−7,236	+17,709	48.0%	421,828
14 Jul 2026	−24,946	+6,178	43.0%	416,604
7 Jul 2026	−31,124	−5,470	40.9%	418,055
30 Jun 2026	−25,654	+704	42.5%	410,166

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from -94,637 to 21,580, averaging -28,222. This week's -61,011 sits at the 18th 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.

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 equity index markets

Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, legacy futures-only report, contract market code 239742. 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.