Source: https://forexiapro.com/glossary/non-commercial-positions/

# Non-Commercial Positions: The Large Speculators in the COT Report

Non-commercial positions are the legacy COT report's label for the positions of reportable traders who are not using the futures to hedge, which traders call the large speculators. They are funds and other large accounts betting on direction. On our COT pages they are the group we call the crowd, and the one our index follows.

[![Non-commercial positions diagram: the report's three groups, whose nets balance](/seo/non-commercial-positions/non-commercial-positions-large-speculators-diagram.webp)](/seo/non-commercial-positions/non-commercial-positions-large-speculators-diagram.webp)

Diagram: the report's three groups. Every long has a short, so the three nets balance.

## What does non-commercial mean in the COT report?

It is the CFTC's term for a trader whose futures positions are not part of a commercial business. A commercial trader is hedging something real, such as a company that will be paid in a foreign currency. A non-commercial trader has no such business to cover, so the position is a view on price. The [CFTC's explanatory notes](https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm) give the formal definitions.

A position has to be large enough to be reported at all. Smaller positions fall in the nonreportable group, which has no trader count. So non-commercial positions are not the small traders and they are not [Dumb Money](/glossary/dumb-money/), our name for the retail herd. They are large accounts, and the report tells you how many hold each side.

## What does a non-commercial position look like on a real row?

The Australian dollar futures, counted on Tuesday 20 October 2026, show it. The non-commercial traders held 98,419 contracts long and 225,711 short, so their net position was 127,292 short. Thirty-eight traders were on the long side and 18 on the short side. Open interest was 333,010 contracts, so the net short was 38.2% of it.

Spreading sits beside the two columns. It was 1,279 contracts, and it counts positions that are long and short at once, so it carries little bet on direction. Leave it out when you work out the net, as [how to read the COT report](/cot-report/how-to-read-the-cot-report/) does step by step.

## Who is on the other side?

Mostly the commercial traders. Every long has a short, so the three groups' nets add up to zero. In the same row, commercials were net long 114,925 contracts and the small traders net long 12,367, which together match the speculators' short. A crowd is never the whole market.

## Why do the groups depend on the report?

Because the legacy report sorts traders by whether they hedge, and other reports sort them by type of business. The Traders in Financial Futures report puts the same Australian dollar contract into asset managers, leveraged funds and dealers. On that Tuesday, asset managers were net short 128,739 and leveraged funds net long 52,497. Picture a speculator and you probably picture a hedge fund, yet in that report the funds were on the opposite side to the label.

The two reports are not provably the same accounts. We keep the legacy series because one group then means the same thing on every market, and we read the TFF beside it as a check.

## What do non-commercial positions not tell you?

They do not name who holds them, and they do not say why. A short may be a bet or a hedge that the report cannot see. They are also futures positions, not spot forex, and they are counted on Tuesday, so they are a few days old on Friday. For the date rule, see [COT release schedule](/glossary/cot-release-schedule/).

Where the non-commercial position stands in its own history is the [COT index](/glossary/cot-index/), and an index at an extreme is a [crowded stance](/glossary/crowded-stance/). Neither says when price will turn.

## How should you read the group's size?

Count the traders as well as the contracts. On the Australian dollar row above, the 18 accounts on the short side held about 12,500 contracts each on average, and the 38 on the long side about 2,600. So when we say the crowd is short, we mean a small number of large accounts, and a few of them closing could move the net a long way without any change of mind among the rest. The report's long format also gives the share held by the four and eight largest traders in each market, whichever group they belong to, which shows the same concentration from another side.

## Where is it taught?

Course 1 of ForexiaPRO, Reading the Map, teaches the groups in lesson 1.3.1 and goes through a real row in its report-reading lessons. For the report itself start at [Commitments of Traders](/glossary/commitments-of-traders/) or the [COT report hub](/cot-report/).

## Frequently asked questions

### What are non-commercial positions in the COT report?

They are the positions held by reportable traders who are not using the futures to hedge a business. Traders call them the large speculators. In the legacy report they are one of three groups, with commercial traders and nonreportable traders.

### Are non-commercial traders the same as retail traders?

No. A position too small to be reported falls in the nonreportable group, so non-commercial traders are larger accounts, funds and trading firms. The report also covers futures, not spot forex, so your broker's clients are outside it.

### Who is on the other side of the non-commercial position?

Mostly the commercial traders, though not always in full. Every long has a short, so the three groups' net positions add up to zero. On the Australian dollar on 20 October 2026, commercials were net long 114,925 against the speculators' 127,292 short.

### Does the newer TFF report give the same groups?

No. The Traders in Financial Futures report sorts the same contract by type of business, with asset managers, leveraged funds and dealers. On the same Tuesday the leveraged funds were net long while the big short sat with asset managers, so the labels do not map one to one.