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VIX: Commitments of Traders

CFTC positions as of the close on 13 October 2026. VIX FUTURES - CBOE FUTURES EXCHANGE, $1000 x index.

Speculators net short96,455

Change on the week−5,161

Rank in 2 years8th

Open interest448,476

This week

In the week to 13 October 2026, non-commercial traders in VIX held a net short position of 96,455 contracts. That is 5,161 contracts fewer than a week earlier. Commercial traders were net long 93,174, which is the other side of the same market. A year ago the speculative net was short 97,390, so it has moved by 935 contracts since. Longs were 33.0% of speculative positions. 193 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 −96,455

189,971 42.4% 93,516 20.9%

Commercial (producers, hedgers) net +93,174

138,946 31.0% 232,120 51.8%

Non-reportable (small traders) net +3,281

22,274 5.0% 25,555 5.7%

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 +6,961

Non-commercial short +12,122

Commercial long +4,371

Commercial short +1,795

Open interest +7,204

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"

89 net +93,174 (+20.8% of OI)

In the top quarter of its range.

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

1 net −96,455 (−21.5% of OI)

At its most net short of the year.

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

82 net +3,281 (+0.7% of OI)

In the top quarter of its range.

Who holds what

Trader category	Long	Short	Net	Week change (long)
Non-commercial (speculators)	93,516	189,971	−96,455	+6,961
Commercial (producers, hedgers)	232,120	138,946	+93,174	+4,371
Non-reportable (small traders)	25,555	22,274	+3,281	–
Non-commercial spreading	97,285 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 0. 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 VIX, 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	−96,455	−5,161	33.0%	448,476
6 Oct 2026	−91,294	−11,684	32.7%	441,272
29 Sep 2026	−79,610	−330	34.5%	421,118
22 Sep 2026	−79,280	+7,305	33.8%	412,339
15 Sep 2026	−86,585	+8,244	34.2%	446,069
8 Sep 2026	−94,829	−10,644	32.9%	431,684
1 Sep 2026	−84,185	−6,021	34.2%	410,586
25 Aug 2026	−78,164	+11,282	33.6%	378,693
18 Aug 2026	−89,446	−14,512	33.0%	417,783
11 Aug 2026	−74,934	−13,825	34.3%	382,021
4 Aug 2026	−61,109	+2,304	37.3%	369,704
28 Jul 2026	−63,413	+13,448	36.3%	343,211
21 Jul 2026	−76,861	−11,078	34.9%	396,499
14 Jul 2026	−65,783	−1,659	37.4%	389,109
7 Jul 2026	−64,124	−5,638	36.3%	372,868
30 Jun 2026	−58,486	+8,288	36.5%	354,502

Across the 104 weeks held, the speculative net ranged from -120,434 to 10,943, averaging -53,007. This week's -96,455 sits at the 8th 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

Cboe VIX

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 1170E1. 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.