COT reports: Short positions held by swap dealers in crude oil futures: WTI-PHYSICAL - NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE (number of contracts) - United States - CFTC - Weekly
This series is part of the dataset: Crude oil futures COT reports (CFTC)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to the Commitments of Traders (COT) reports published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), short positions held by swap dealers in crude oil futures of the kind "WTI-PHYSICAL - NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE" were 576,056 contracts on 18 August 2026, versus 578,142 on 11 August 2026.
Sample. There are 1,054 data points in the weekly time series shown in the graph above. The time span covered by the series goes from June 2006 to August 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some simple statistics computed on the entire sample: positions had a mean of 376,465 contracts; they recorded their maximum of 852,769 on 30 January 2018; they reached their lowest level of 62,071 on 17 March 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Number of contracts |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-04 | 596288.0 |
| 2026-08-11 | 578142.0 |
| 2026-08-18 | 576056.0 |
Heads-up. To simplify research, we categorize series into worksheets and datasets. By scrolling down, you will find how we arranged further information related to the statistics published here.
Not for investment purposes. Data series and other information accessible on this web site are not not supposed to be used for investment purposes or as a basis for making financial decisions. Users should obtain professional advice and perform independent analysis before making any financial commitments.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Short positions held by swap dealers in crude oil futures |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Stock |
| Data type | Quantity |
| Seasonally adjusted | No |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Rescaling | None |
| Measure type | Level |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Unit | Number of contracts |
| Source | Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) |
| Source type | Government agency |
| Data licence | Public domain information |
| Other information | Specific future: WTI-PHYSICAL - NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE |
| FSR temporal aggregation code | LW1 |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.