Silver COT: Net Positioning
CFTC Commitment of Traders — managed money net long/short (COMEX silver futures) · Quotes delayed up to 5 minutesThe weekly Commitment of Traders report for COMEX silver futures, showing the same commercial-versus-speculator breakdown as the gold COT. Silver’s smaller futures market produces more dramatic positioning swings than gold’s, and the COT report has been a particularly active focus of retail attention since 2021’s silver squeeze attempts. The chart reveals the institutional positioning that drives much of silver’s near-term price action.
Analyst's Note
Silver COT positioning is more extreme in both directions than gold COT — large commercials have historically held very large net-short positions, sometimes representing more than the entire annual mine supply. Whether this is manipulation or legitimate hedging is a long-running debate; the data shows the positioning, but the interpretation is contested. For the analytical investor, the silver COT is most useful as a contrarian signal at extremes: when speculator net-longs reach historical maxima (as they did in 2010–2011 and 2020), local tops have typically followed; when commercial net-shorts cover dramatically, bottoms have typically been forming. The signal is noisy on a week-to-week basis but reliable on multi-month horizons.
The weekly Commitment of Traders report for COMEX silver futures, showing the same commercial-versus-speculator breakdown as the gold COT. Silver’s smaller futures market produces more dramatic positioning swings than gold’s, and the COT report has been a particularly active focus of retail attention since 2021’s silver squeeze attempts. The chart reveals the institutional positioning that drives much of silver’s near-term price action.
Analyst's Note
Silver COT positioning is more extreme in both directions than gold COT — large commercials have historically held very large net-short positions, sometimes representing more than the entire annual mine supply. Whether this is manipulation or legitimate hedging is a long-running debate; the data shows the positioning, but the interpretation is contested. For the analytical investor, the silver COT is most useful as a contrarian signal at extremes: when speculator net-longs reach historical maxima (as they did in 2010–2011 and 2020), local tops have typically followed; when commercial net-shorts cover dramatically, bottoms have typically been forming. The signal is noisy on a week-to-week basis but reliable on multi-month horizons.
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