Crude Oil (WTI) COT Report
Live CFTC Commitments of Traders positioning for Crude Oil (WTI) futures — commercial hedgers versus managed money. Latest report: September 15, 2026.
By RetailVest Researchsourced from CFTCupdated
Positioning signal
bearish
Specs adding shorts (with room to grow)
Z-score (vs 3yr)
-0.2
53.8th percentile
Open interest
1,955,764
+15,853 WoW
In plain English
Speculators lean bearish on Crude Oil (WTI), though not at a full extreme. Worth watching to see whether the pessimism deepens into a contrarian opportunity.
Who's positioned where
Commercials (hedgers)
-164,858
net · 895,203 long / 1,060,061 short
Managed money (specs)
+135,905
net · 371,202 long / 235,297 short
Commercial net — last 6 months
What this means for Crude Oil (WTI)
The CFTC's weekly report splits Crude Oil (WTI) futures positions into — producers and users hedging real exposure — and , the speculators taking the other side. Commercials are net short here, while specs are net long. Research on hedging pressure finds that when commercial hedgers are unusually net-short, it has historically preceded positive returns — so the (currently -0.2) matters more than the raw number.Crude Oil (WTI) ultimately trades on inventories, OPEC+ supply, and global demand, and positioning is one input among those fundamentals.
Educational analysis, not investment advice. Positioning is descriptive and can stay extreme for long stretches.
Trade Crude Oil (WTI) without futures — ETF proxies
Liquid ETFs that track Crude Oil (WTI). Same idea, no margin account required.
- USOFutures◉ options
- USL12-mo futures◉ options
- BNOFutures◉ options
- XLESector◉ options
- UCOLeveraged 2x◉ options
Leveraged/inverse ETFs (amber) reset daily and decay over time — for short holds only. Not investment advice.
Other COT reports
New to this? Read how to read the COT report or see the evidence behind hedging-pressure.