VIX COT Positioning
How large traders are positioned in VIX futures, straight from the weekly CFTC Commitments of Traders report. Updated within minutes of every Friday release.
What the positioning says
Leveraged funds are net short 26,258 contracts and trimmed that short position over the past week. That leaves positioning at the 65th percentile of its 52-week range — approaching the stretched end, though not yet at an extreme.
Remember this contract is inverted: these are bets on volatility, so a long position is a hedge against falling stocks. The bias above is already expressed for risk assets — the opposite of the VIX itself.
What moves VIX positioning
VIX futures are a bet on expected stock-market volatility, so this report reads inversely to everything else here: more longs mean more fear (a hedge against falling stocks), which is risk-off. WAVG flips the bias accordingly — a bullish VIX positioning signal is bearish for equities.
Structurally, many participants are net short volatility, harvesting the roll as VIX futures usually trade above spot. That short-vol crowd works until it doesn't: when a shock forces it to cover, volatility spikes violently. Extreme positioning in VIX is best read as a warning about the stability of the equity rally, not a stand-alone trade.
This week's report
| Trader group | Long | Short | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leveraged funds | 86,075 | 112,333 | −26,258 |
| Asset managers | 53,917 | 84,942 | −31,025 |
| Dealers | 89,558 | 40,696 | +48,862 |
Contracts held long, short and net as of Sep 1, 2026 (published Sep 4, 2026). Source: CFTC.
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