Crude Oil COT Positioning
How large traders are positioned in Crude Oil futures, straight from the weekly CFTC Commitments of Traders report. Updated within minutes of every Friday release.
What the positioning says
Managed money is net short 10,747 contracts and added to that short position over the past week. That leaves positioning at the 90th percentile of its 52-week range — a crowded, stretched reading that has historically been vulnerable to a reversal.
WAVG reads this the same way every week across every market, names the factors behind the bias, and flags when positioning reaches an extreme that has historically preceded a turn.
What moves crude oil positioning
WTI crude uses the same three groups: managed money (funds trading the macro and supply story), producers and merchants (oil producers hedging, structurally short), and swap dealers. Managed money's net long is the classic sentiment gauge for oil.
It is driven by supply — OPEC+ decisions and US shale output — against global demand, tracked through weekly EIA inventories and growth data. Geopolitics (Middle East, sanctions, shipping) can force fast repositioning, and a stronger dollar is a mild headwind. Crowded fund longs into a supply glut have repeatedly preceded sharp reversals.
This week's report
| Trader group | Long | Short | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managed money | 13,651 | 24,398 | −10,747 |
| Producers & merchants | 413,369 | 319,322 | +94,047 |
| Swap dealers | 8,813 | 82,795 | −73,982 |
Contracts held long, short and net as of Sep 1, 2026 (published Sep 4, 2026). Source: CFTC.
See the full Crude Oil analysis
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