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Soybeans: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. SOYBEANS - CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE, contracts of 5,000 bushels.

Speculators net long251,649

Change on the week−17,953

Rank in 2 years94th

Open interest1,329,482

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in Soybeans held a net long position of 251,649 contracts. That is 17,953 contracts fewer than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net short 223,272, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was long 18,353, so it has moved by 233,296 contracts since. Longs were 81.3% of speculative positions. 656 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 +251,649

75,062 5.6% 326,711 24.6%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net −223,272

765,554 57.6% 542,282 40.8%

Non-reportable (small traders) net −28,378

85,780 6.5% 57,402 4.3%

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 −10,746

Non-commercial short +7,207

Commercial long −23,154

Commercial short −43,066

Open interest −49,606

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"

12 net −223,272 (−16.8% of OI)

In the bottom quarter of its range.

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

89 net +251,649 (+18.9% of OI)

In the top quarter of its range.

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

37 net −28,378 (−2.1% of OI)

Mid-range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	326,711	75,062	+251,649	−10,746
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	542,282	765,554	−223,272	−23,154
Non-reportable (small traders)	57,402	85,780	−28,378	–
Non-commercial spreading	403,087 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 Soybeans, 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	+251,649	−17,953	81.3%	1,329,482
6 Oct 2026	+269,603	+17,411	83.3%	1,379,088
29 Sep 2026	+252,191	−29,242	81.1%	1,343,560
22 Sep 2026	+281,433	+23,645	82.9%	1,428,898
15 Sep 2026	+257,788	−19,055	80.8%	1,416,904
8 Sep 2026	+276,843	+27,711	81.7%	1,378,220
1 Sep 2026	+249,131	+42,909	80.5%	1,325,813
25 Aug 2026	+206,222	+35,785	77.6%	1,192,738
18 Aug 2026	+170,437	+43,658	75.4%	1,219,563
11 Aug 2026	+126,779	−19,355	69.8%	1,203,233
4 Aug 2026	+146,135	−38,894	74.2%	1,194,700
28 Jul 2026	+185,029	+32,019	79.0%	1,239,392
21 Jul 2026	+153,010	+54,726	74.5%	1,300,374
14 Jul 2026	+98,284	+11,028	66.6%	1,231,185
7 Jul 2026	+87,256	+45,644	64.3%	1,202,753
30 Jun 2026	+41,612	−4,427	57.1%	1,082,050

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from -96,342 to 281,433, averaging 86,125. This week's 251,649 sits at the 94th 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
ADM Archer-Daniels-Midland Co	$82.61	−0.39%
BG Bunge Global SA	$106.14	−0.81%

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 005602. 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.