COT Report for Crude Oil

Who is in each category

• Producer/Merchant/Processor/User: oil producers, refiners, traders of physical oil and large consumers that use futures mainly to hedge. Producers selling forward show up as large short positions.
• Swap Dealers: banks and dealers that sell over-the-counter swaps to clients (such as airlines or producers) and hedge the exposure in futures. Their positions often mirror their clients' hedging.
• Managed Money: hedge funds, commodity trading advisers (CTAs) and other money managers trading for clients. This is the category traders watch most for speculative sentiment.
• Other Reportables: large traders that do not fit the other groups, such as proprietary trading firms.
• Nonreportable: the remainder: traders below the CFTC's reporting threshold.

The older Legacy report splits traders only into "commercial" and "non-commercial". Long histories of non-commercial positioning use this format, but the disaggregated report is more useful for oil because it separates swap dealers from true physical hedgers.

Managed money net length

The most quoted figure is managed money net length: the number of long contracts held by money managers minus their short contracts. Analysts often combine NYMEX WTI and ICE Brent to get a picture of total speculative positioning in crude. Changes from week to week show whether funds are buying or selling.

Look at the long and short sides separately as well. A rise in net length can come from new buying (bullish conviction) or from short covering (bears giving up). The second can fade quickly once the covering is done.

A worked reading (hypothetical numbers)

Suppose the WTI disaggregated report shows managed money with 300,000 long and 100,000 short contracts, a net long of 200,000. A week earlier the figures were 280,000 long and 130,000 short, a net long of 150,000. Net length rose by 50,000 contracts, but only 20,000 came from new longs; 30,000 came from shorts buying back. Each contract is 1,000 barrels, so the 50,000-contract change equals 50 million barrels of exposure. A move driven mostly by short covering is often treated as less durable than one driven by new buying.

How traders use COT data

Trend confirmation

Many funds, especially CTAs, follow price trends. Rising managed money length during a rally suggests the trend has support. Combine this with the technical picture before drawing conclusions.

Contrarian signals at extremes

When managed money net length reaches the top or bottom of its multi-year range, the market can be "crowded". If most funds are already long, there are fewer buyers left and a shock can trigger rapid selling as they exit. Extreme short positioning can likewise fuel sharp short-covering rallies. Traders often measure this with a "COT index" that places the current net position within, for example, its range over the past three years.

Watching hedgers

Producer hedging tends to increase when prices are high, as shale companies lock in revenue for the following year. A jump in producer short positions after a rally can signal that producers see the price as attractive for selling forward, which feeds into future supply. See US oil production.

Limitations

• Delay: data reflects Tuesday's positions but arrives on Friday afternoon. In a fast market, such as the large swings in oil during 2026, positions can change a lot in three days.
• Categories are imperfect: a trader is classified by its main business, not by the purpose of each trade.
• Only futures and options: over-the-counter swaps and physical trades are visible only indirectly through swap dealers.
• No timing signal on its own: crowded positioning can stay crowded for weeks while prices keep moving the same way.
• Schedule changes: federal holidays push releases back, and a US government shutdown can suspend CFTC reports entirely, as happened in late 2025, creating a backlog.

Where to find the data

The CFTC publishes the reports free on its website in text and spreadsheet formats, with historical files going back years. For WTI, look up "CRUDE OIL, LIGHT SWEET" on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the Petroleum and Products section of the disaggregated report. ICE Futures Europe publishes Brent and Gasoil COT data on its report centre. Use it alongside weekly fundamentals such as the EIA inventory report and Cushing stocks, and with the contract background on WTI futures and Brent futures.

COT data describes past positioning; it does not predict prices. Trading oil futures is high risk. This page is educational and not investment advice.