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Trader positions (COT)

Trader positions: Live Cattle

Who is buying and who is selling the live cattle futures (LE) contract: speculators, commercial hedgers and retail traders, according to the weekly CFTC report.

Positions at 27/10/2026·LE Contract·Weekly publication
Net position of speculators
34 885
contracts at 27/10/2026
Weekly change
4 155
contracts
COT Index 1 year
9 / 100
0 = most seller, 100 = most buyer of the year
Open positions
288 757
open contracts
Sellers 38 %
Buyers 62 %

Reading: Speculators are close to their most bearish position of the year: bearish excess zone, where turnarounds are frequent. Weekly trend: increasingly bullish.

Chart

Net positions over one year

Speculators (net)Commercials (net)Retail investors (net)
-100 0000100 0002025-092025-122026-022026-042026-062026-082026-10Speculators (net)Commercials (net)Retail investors (net)
Net position = buyer contracts minus sellers30/09/2025 → 27/10/2026
Education

Understanding the COT report

Every Friday, the CFTC (the American watchdog of futures markets) publishes the report COT (Commitments of Traders): the buying and selling positions of each category of participants as of the previous Tuesday. The speculators (funds, managers) follow trends; the commercial (producers, industrials) hedge and often take the opposite position. An extreme speculative net position, very long or very short, signals an unbalanced market.

L'COT index locates the net position of speculators between its low (0) and its high (100) of the last 52 weeks. Above 85 or below 15, the positioning is extreme; it is not a buy or sell signal on its own, but a benchmark of imbalance.

Table

Week by week

Week ofSpeculatorsTradersRetail investorsOpen positions
27/10/202634 885-28 090-6 795288 757
20/10/202630 730-22 995-7 735289 575
13/10/202626 326-19 565-6 761293 427
06/10/202629 392-22 901-6 491293 647
29/09/202635 168-29 993-5 175293 639
22/09/202628 312-23 227-5 085284 889
15/09/202628 768-21 104-7 664282 118
08/09/202629 023-21 629-7 394294 350
01/09/202627 380-19 293-8 087300 731
25/08/202635 846-28 575-7 271288 743
18/08/202639 584-30 402-9 182280 826
11/08/202644 012-35 161-8 851276 625
04/08/202643 588-35 739-7 849291 760
28/07/202644 323-37 389-6 934298 449
21/07/202655 014-48 925-6 089303 089
14/07/202669 705-61 324-8 381311 766
07/07/202681 668-70 893-10 775316 893
30/06/202687 861-77 507-10 354319 572
23/06/202697 152-84 458-12 694328 903
16/06/202695 104-82 098-13 006329 990

⚠ Information provided for educational purposes from public data, with their date. They may contain source errors and do not constitute investment advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

To read this page properly

When is the report published?
Every Friday at 15 30 New York time, with positions settled as of the previous Tuesday. The page is updated on Saturday morning.
Who are the "speculators"?
Non-commercial participants: hedge funds, managers, trading advisors. They seek to profit from price variations without using the commodity.
And the "commercial hedgers"?
The producers, processors and users of the commodity (mines, oil companies, millers, airlines) who hedge against price variations.

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