Russell 2000
- Small speculators
- 7,561
- Large speculators
- -87,845
- Commercials
- 80,284
- Open interest
- 425,152
Week ending 2026-10-06. Speculators are net short, and commercials are on the other side.Large speculators, week on week:10,405 contracts
Reading this chart
Commercials are the companies with a reason to be in the market anyway: a miner selling forward, an airline buying fuel, a bank hedging a book of stock. Large speculators are the funds. Small speculators are everybody too small to have to report.
The three sum to zero every week, so when one group leans hard, some other group is holding the opposite side. A large speculator net short in stock index futures is often a hedge against shares held elsewhere, not a bet the market falls.
Others in this group
Each inside its own three year range, highest first.
Source: Commitments of Traders, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Figures are contracts held, not dollars.