VIX COT Report positioning analysis.
Traders in Financial Futures COT report · Leveraged Funds · 3-year rank · updated usually Friday, 3:30 PM ETReleased · positions as of
In VIX, leveraged funds hold a mid-range net position for the last 3 years, above 48% of the weeks since November 2023.
Leveraged Funds: net short up 26.1% this week.
VIX COT report: the latest positions
Oct 27, 2026 · Futures Only
VIX: large speculators (Non-Commercial) held a net short position of 77,466 contracts in the COT report of Oct 27, 2026, 20.5% of open interest.
COT Sentiment · Oct 27, 2026
- Non-CommercialSpeculatorsNET SHORT-77,466Bearish
- CommercialHedging, not price speculation. On financial futures, Commercials are mostly dealers, banks and other institutions offsetting the exposure of their own business. Their net short or net long is mostly that offsetting, not a view on where the price is going.NET LONG+79,049
- Non-ReportableNET SHORT-1,583Bearish
| Long | Short | Net Positions | Net Change | % of OI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-CommercialSpeculators | 91,264 | 168,730 | -77,466 | +19,043 | -20.5% |
| Commercial | 189,314 | 110,265 | +79,049 | -19,528 | +20.9% |
| Non-Reportable | 21,802 | 23,385 | -1,583 | +485 | -0.4% |
Open interest: 378,372 contracts
The COT shows positions held, not trades made — a fund holding a contract for six months looks the same as one entered Monday.
VIX: what changed in the week to Oct 27, 2026
COT data reflects positions as of Tuesday close, released Friday at 3:30 PM ET.
Free · Legacy report · Oct 27, 2026 · Futures Only
This week, the large speculators’ net short position shrank by 19,043 contracts (19.7%): longs -5,783, shorts -24,826. Open interest fell by 55,406 contracts to 378,372. Commercials (hedgers) were net long 79,049 contracts and non-reportable traders (small traders) net short 1,583 contracts. On financial futures, Commercials are mostly dealers, banks and other institutions offsetting the exposure of their own business. Their net short or net long is mostly that offsetting, not a view on where the price is going.
The last 13 weekly reports
VIX: the large speculators’ (Non-Commercial) net position in the last 13 weekly reports
| DATE | LONG | SHORT | CHANGE LONG | CHANGE SHORT | NET POSITIONS | NET CHANGE | NET % CHANGE | % OI LONG | % OI SHORT | OPEN INTEREST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91,264 | 168,730 | -5,783 | -24,826 | ▲-77,466 | +19,043 | +19.73% | 24.12% | 44.59% | 378,372 | |
| 97,047 | 193,556 | +3,531 | +3,585 | ▼-96,509 | -54 | -0.06% | 22.37% | 44.62% | 433,778 | |
| 93,516 | 189,971 | +6,961 | +12,122 | ▼-96,455 | -5,161 | -5.65% | 20.85% | 42.36% | 448,469 | |
| 86,555 | 177,849 | -1,793 | +9,891 | ▼-91,294 | -11,684 | -14.68% | 19.62% | 40.30% | 441,261 | |
| 88,348 | 167,958 | +5,572 | +5,902 | ▼-79,610 | -330 | -0.42% | 20.98% | 39.88% | 421,113 | |
| 82,776 | 162,056 | -10,974 | -18,279 | ▲-79,280 | +7,305 | +8.44% | 20.08% | 39.30% | 412,323 | |
| 93,750 | 180,335 | +2,634 | -5,610 | ▲-86,585 | +8,244 | +8.69% | 21.02% | 40.43% | 446,060 | |
| 91,116 | 185,945 | +114 | +10,758 | ▼-94,829 | -10,644 | -12.64% | 21.11% | 43.08% | 431,671 | |
| 91,002 | 175,187 | +10,671 | +16,692 | ▼-84,185 | -6,021 | -7.70% | 22.16% | 42.67% | 410,574 | |
| 80,331 | 158,495 | -6,824 | -18,106 | ▲-78,164 | +11,282 | +12.61% | 21.21% | 41.85% | 378,681 | |
| 87,155 | 176,601 | +5,406 | +19,918 | ▼-89,446 | -14,512 | -19.37% | 20.86% | 42.27% | 417,768 | |
| 81,749 | 156,683 | -8,168 | +5,657 | ▼-74,934 | -13,825 | -22.62% | 21.40% | 41.02% | 382,010 | |
| 89,917 | 151,026 | +5,547 | +3,243 | ▲-61,109 | +2,304 | +3.63% | 24.32% | 40.86% | 369,655 |
Source: the CFTC’s Legacy Commitments of Traders report, Futures Only. Large speculators = Non-Commercial, hedgers = Commercial, small traders = Non-Reportable. “Largest since” looks back up to 520 weekly reports (about 10 years). The Legacy report has two large-trader groups, while the TFF report splits the same traders into four: the Non-Commercial net here and the net of the leveraged funds in the analysis count different traders and can differ, even by side.
The CFTC has published the COT report continuously since 1962 — weekly on Fridays since 2000.
The COT shows positioning, not price — it tells you who holds what, not where the price will go.
Fixed rules on
the weekly CFTC report.
The analysis sentences are produced by fixed rules from the week's numbers — not written by hand, not by a language model. The same rules run on every market after each CFTC release. The short market introductions are written texts.
Based on the CFTC's Futures Only report — Disaggregated for commodities, Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) for financial markets. With COT Premium, the sections below can also be read in the Futures & Options Combined version.
Where today's net position sits in the group's own 3-year range: 0 = the lowest of the last 156 weeks, 100 = the highest. Shaded ends: the 80/20 and 90/10 bands.
- 01Rank each groupEvery group's net position, as % of open interest, is ranked against its own last 156 weeks (0–100).
- 02Name the bandHigh from 80, extremely high from 90; low at 20 and below, extremely low at 10 and below. A band is kept until the rank falls back below 75 / 85 (or rises above 25 / 15).
- 03Check opposite sidesWhen the speculators and the small traders sit at opposite ends of their ranges, that state takes priority.
- 04Measure the weekThis week's change is compared with the market's usual weekly change (a z-score over 52 weeks).
Are speculators long or short VIX right now?
VIX: large speculators (Non-Commercial) held a net short position of 77,466 contracts in the COT report of Oct 27, 2026, 20.5% of open interest. In the TFF report, leveraged funds were net short.
What changed in the VIX COT report this week?
This week, the large speculators’ net short position shrank by 19,043 contracts (19.7%): longs -5,783, shorts -24,826. Open interest fell by 55,406 contracts to 378,372. Commercials (hedgers) were net long 79,049 contracts and non-reportable traders (small traders) net short 1,583 contracts. On financial futures, Commercials are mostly dealers, banks and other institutions offsetting the exposure of their own business. Their net short or net long is mostly that offsetting, not a view on where the price is going.
Where can I see VIX COT history for free?
On the VIX COT table (Legacy report, Futures Only), every visitor sees the last 6 months (26 weekly reports); a free account opens up to 10 years. The VIX COT chart shows up to 10 years of weekly positions to everyone, no account needed.
What does the VIX COT positioning analysis show?
VIX futures (VX) on Cboe Futures Exchange settle on the Cboe Volatility Index, the market's 30-day implied volatility of the S&P 500; one contract is $1,000 times the VIX. Positions here are bets and hedges on volatility itself, not on the direction of stocks. The CFTC reports the contract in the Traders in Financial Futures report: Leveraged Funds, Asset Managers and Dealers, each with very different reasons to hold volatility. In VIX, the net position of leveraged funds has ranged from -37% to +3% of open interest since March 2019.
When is the VIX Commitments of Traders report released?
Every Friday at 3:30 PM Eastern Time, for positions held on the previous Tuesday. When a US federal holiday falls on the Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of that week, the release moves to the next business day, usually the following Monday — a Monday holiday such as Labor Day does not delay it. This analysis updates after each release.
Who are the leveraged funds in VIX?
Leveraged Funds in the CFTC's words: hedge funds and money managers such as commodity trading advisors and pool operators. This analysis calls them the speculators.
How is the 3-year range calculated?
Each week, a group's net position as % of open interest is compared with its own last 156 weekly readings: 0 is the lowest of those weeks and 100 the highest. A group becomes high at 80 and extremely high at 90, low at 20 and extremely low at 10. It keeps that band until its rank falls back below 75 (high) or 85 (extremely high), or rises above 25 and 15 on the low side, so a market does not change band on a small weekly move.
Is this investment advice?
No. It is an automated, educational description of public CFTC data and does not tell anyone what to do.
Not a trading signal, an entry point or a recommendation.
Automated, descriptive analysis of public CFTC data (prices: Yahoo Finance) by COT-Reports.com, computed Oct 30, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC from the report of Oct 27, 2026. The numbers are facts; the words describing them are our interpretation. COT-Reports.com sells subscriptions and lists partner offers. Not investment advice. Past patterns do not predict future prices. How this analysis is computed
Weekly data from CFTC (Futures Only). Price from Yahoo Finance. Charts drawn with TradingView Lightweight Charts™. Copyright (c) 2026 TradingView, Inc.