Palladium COT Report
Live CFTC Commitments of Traders positioning for Palladium futures — commercial hedgers versus managed money. Latest report: July 28, 2026.
By RetailVest Researchsourced from CFTCupdated
Positioning signal
extreme_short
Large specs at extreme short position — contrarian bullish
Z-score (vs 3yr)
-1.6
11.5th percentile
Open interest
18,699
+259 WoW
In plain English
Speculators lean bearish on Palladium, though not at a full extreme. Worth watching to see whether the pessimism deepens into a contrarian opportunity.
Who's positioned where
Commercials (hedgers)
+4,414
net · 8,668 long / 4,254 short
Managed money (specs)
-4,767
net · 6,861 long / 11,628 short
Commercial net — last 6 months
What this means for Palladium
The CFTC's weekly report splits Palladium futures positions into — producers and users hedging real exposure — and , the speculators taking the other side. Commercials are net long here, while specs are net short. Research on hedging pressure finds that when commercial hedgers are unusually net-short, it has historically preceded positive returns — so the (currently -1.6) matters more than the raw number.Palladium ultimately trades on gasoline auto-catalyst demand and Russian supply, and positioning is one input among those fundamentals.
Educational analysis, not investment advice. Positioning is descriptive and can stay extreme for long stretches.
Trade Palladium without futures — ETF proxies
Liquid ETFs that track Palladium. Same idea, no margin account required.
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.