How to Read the CFTC Commitments of Traders Report — COMEX Gold Futures Positions

As of 14 November 2026, 00:59 KST (retrieval time from our saved-copy records); latest published report at retrieval: the legacy Commitments of Traders report for Commodity Exchange Inc. (COMEX), futures only, short format, with positions as of 11/03/26 (Tuesday, November 3, 2026). The report page does not print its release date. Gold is the block GOLD - COMMODITY EXCHANGE INC. (Code-088691), in contracts of 100 troy ounces. Primary source: https://www.cftc.gov/dea/futures/deacmxsf.htm^[1][6]

Comparison basis: the previous column is the 10/27/26 report and the year-ago column the 11/04/25 report, both from the CFTC's Historical Viewable archive. Contract counts are whole numbers as printed and are not rounded; CFTC prints percents of open interest rounded to one decimal ("Percents less than 0.05 are shown as 0.0; and because of rounding, percents may not total 100.0."). Net positions and the year-ago differences subtract the displayed figures; the -11.4% is this page's calculation rounded to one decimal.^[1][5]

In three lines

1. COMEX gold futures open interest was 399,169 contracts on 11/03/26, up 2,359 in a week and 51,230 (11.4%) below 450,399 a year earlier.
2. Non-commercial traders held 220,530 long and 40,982 short, a net long of 179,548 by this page's subtraction, down 6,903 from 186,451 a week before.
3. Commercial traders held 269,228 short and 64,326 long; their short side fell 10,505 in the week.^[1]

Positions reported by firms, not a survey. "The COT reports are based on position data supplied by reporting firms (FCMs, clearing members, foreign brokers and exchanges)." "The CFTC receives the data from the reporting firms on Wednesday morning and then corrects and verifies the data for release by Friday afternoon." The report gives no margins of error; its figures are counts of reported contracts.^[4]

Commercial classification is based on trader-reported information (Form 40), subject to CFTC review and possible reclassification. "Trader classifications are based on the information provided by the trader on their CFTC Form 40." "CFTC staff does not know specific reasons for traders' positions and hence this information does not factor in determining trader classifications." So non-commercial and commercial describe how traders are classified, not why any position was taken; this page does not read the categories as speculators and hedgers.^[4][5]

How the columns add up. "The aggregate of all long open interest is equal to the aggregate of all short open interest." Non-commercial long plus spreading plus commercial long gives total reportable long (353,145); adding nonreportable long (46,024) gives the open interest of 399,169, and the short side gives the same total (this page's check, also for the 10/27/26 and 11/04/25 reports). "For the futures-only report, spreading measures the extent to which each non-commercial trader holds equal long and short futures positions."^[1][5]

Nonreportable positions are a remainder. The Explanatory Notes say this column is derived by subtracting reportable positions from total open interest, so the number and classification of the traders in it are unknown.^[5]

Change line versus the previous report. "Changes represent the differences between the data for the current report date and the data published in the previous report." Adding each printed change to the 10/27/26 report gives all nine position columns and the open interest of the 11/03/26 gold block (this page's check). The CFTC FAQ also states: "No, historical data is not updated once published."^[1][2][5]

Trader counts do not add to the total. The five category counts for gold (152, 62, 78, 56, 44) sum to 392, while total traders are 282. The Explanatory Notes explain this: "The sum of the numbers of traders in each category, therefore, will often exceed the number of traders in that market."^[1][5]

Reportable share above the usual range. The notes say: "The aggregate of all traders' positions reported to the Commission usually represents 70 to 90 percent of the total open interest in any given market." For gold on 11/03/26, reportable positions are 88.5% of open interest on the long side and 94.8% on the short side. The short side is above the range the notes call usual; the notes say usually, so this is not a contradiction, and the report does not explain it.^[1][5]

A year apart. Against 11/04/25, open interest is 51,230 lower, non-commercial net long is 22,759 lower and commercial net short is 31,640 lower (this page's subtraction). The report shows positions only; it does not state why they changed, and this page does not assign a cause.^[1][3]

The CFTC does not interpret. "The CFTC does not analyze the data nor make recommendations on it."^[4]

Dates kept apart. Position date: 11/03/26 (a Tuesday). Release: the report page does not print it; the 2026 schedule lists a November 06 release, and the CFTC says: "Generally, the data in the COT reports is from Tuesday and released Friday." "The Commitments of Traders reports are released at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time." The pages read carry no page-update date.^[1][4][6]

Next release. "The following is a tentative schedule of releases through 2026." The November row lists 06, 16*, 20 and 30*, where the asterisk marks a delayed release date due to a federal holiday. The next listed date after retrieval is November 16. "The release usually includes data from the previous Tuesday." "Federal holidays may delay release by one or two days."^[6]

Markets can drop out. "Specifically, when the number of reportable Large Traders drops below 20 for a commodity or contract market, it no longer appears in the COT report."^[4]