This week: The CFTC's disaggregated Petroleum COT report for positions as of Tuesday, July 28, 2026 was published Friday afternoon and pulled directly from cftc.gov this run (confirmed via a `curl -I` Last-Modified check against the primary page β 3:27 PM ET, right at the normal release window β after an initial fetch returned a Cloudflare-cached copy of last week's page; a cache-busting retry pulled the live data). Both WTI legs firmed sharply. WTI Physical (NYMEX) net long jumped to +92,943 contracts (Long 193,959 / Short 101,016), up +28,964 from +63,979 the prior week β driven by fresh buying (+6,490 longs) alongside aggressive short-covering (-22,474 shorts). WTI Financial (ICE Europe) flipped its trajectory too, narrowing further to -9,959 contracts net short (Long 11,360 / Short 21,319) from -17,208, a +7,249 improvement. Combined WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe) net long surged to +82,984 contracts, up +36,213 (+77%) w/w β one of the larger single-week builds in the recent series. ICE Brent Crude is now confirmed directly from ICE's own historical bulk-data file (Futures and Options Combined report, provided locally this run): net long eased modestly to +185,083 contracts (Long 350,373 / Short 165,290), down -6,948 from +192,031 the prior week β a small give-back after the sharp mid-July build, not the "carried forward" placeholder used earlier this run. Combined WTI+Brent net long is now +268,067 contracts, up +29,265 w/w on the strength of WTI. Separately, EIA's weekly WTI spot price (RWTC) jumped again to $88.58/bbl (+$7.81 w/w) for the week ending July 24 β WTI positioning building aggressively into a sharply rising tape, consistent with the ongoing Iran-US conflict and Strait of Hormuz risk premium.
π Data: NYMEX WTI Physical and WTI Financial (ICE Europe) β both genuine Managed Money, confirmed as of July 28, 2026, pulled directly from cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm (released July 31, 2026). ICE Brent Crude β also confirmed as of July 28, 2026, sourced this run from ICE's own COTHist2026.csv historical bulk-data file (Futures and Options Combined report; the same convention the dashboard has used at least since Jul 21). This file also let us correct the full 2026 Brent history in the chart below, which had been inconsistently sourced (a mix of futures-only figures and a few likely-erroneous points) in earlier weeks. CFTC and ICE both report Tuesday positions, released the following Friday.
WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe, Managed Money) Net
+83.0k
contracts (net long; both legs confirmed Jul 28)
β² +36.2k w/w β sharp build in both legs
Brent Net Long (ICE Brent Crude)
+185.1k
contracts (confirmed Jul 28, ICE COTHist2026.csv)
βΌ -6.9k w/w β modest give-back post mid-Jul surge
Combined WTI + Brent
+268.1k
contracts (both legs confirmed Jul 28)
β² +29.3k w/w β WTI build outweighs Brent pullback
WTI NYMEX Long / Short Ratio
1.92x
longs vs shorts (Managed Money)
L 194k vs S 101k (Jul 28, 2026)
Market Signal
π WTI Builds Sharply; Brent Holds Near Highs
NYMEX shorts covered aggressively (-22.5k) while Brent net long steadies around 185-192k
RWTC spot up $7.81/bbl w/w to $88.58 amid Iran-US escalation
Managed Money Positioning β WTI & Brent Thousands of contracts | Jan 2021 β Jul 2026
Weekly. EIA series RWTC (Cushing, OK WTI spot price FOB, US$/bbl). Each point is the week-ending Friday price preceding the corresponding CFTC report date. Shares the x-axis of the positioning chart above.
Brent Short
WTI Short
Brent Long
WTI Long
Net
Values in thousands of contracts. WTI from CFTC Disaggregated COT (WTI Physical, NYMEX; managed money) β confirmed genuine Managed Money through Jul 28, 2026 (Long 194.0k / Short 101.0k / Net +92.9k), up sharply from +64.0k the prior week. Brent from ICE Futures Europe's own Commitments of Traders Report (ICE Brent Crude Futures and Options Combined; managed money) β the genuine global Brent benchmark, which CFTC does not cover since it is UK/FCA-regulated β also confirmed through Jul 28, 2026 (Long 350.4k / Short 165.3k / Net +185.1k), sourced this run from ICE's own COTHist2026.csv historical bulk-data file supplied locally, which also let the full 2026 weekly history in this chart be corrected against previously inconsistent sourcing. Sources: CFTC Disaggregated COT (publicreporting.cftc.gov, cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm) and ICE Futures Europe Commitments of Traders Report (COTHist2026.csv, ICE Futures Europe bulk historical data).
β
Methodology note: WTI and Brent aren't measured on a fully symmetric basis here. "WTI" is CFTC's single largest WTI contract (Physical, NYMEX) β the smaller ICE Europe WTI contract (OI 781.2k) is tracked separately in the table below and excluded from this chart and from the "Combined WTI + Brent" figures. "Brent" is ICE's Futures and Options Combined report for its primary Brent Crude contract (OI 3,545,491 as of Jul 28, 2026), which has no comparably-sized secondary contract to exclude β this is the convention the dashboard has used since at least Jul 21, and it's now applied consistently back through the full 2026 series using ICE's own COTHist2026.csv bulk file (previously, several weeks in Jan-Jul 2026 had been sourced from the futures-only report or from uncertain/carried-forward values β those have been corrected this run). ICE's live web Report Center portal remains gated behind a click-through agreement protected by a reCAPTCHA and was not accessed directly; this bulk CSV file, supplied locally in the dashboard folder, is the working alternative going forward.
Detailed Positions Table As of Jul 28, 2026 (All Rows Confirmed Managed Money) | CFTC / ICE COT
| Contract / Exchange |
MM Longs |
MM Shorts |
Net Position |
W/W Longs |
W/W Shorts |
W/W Net Ξ |
Open Interest |
Signal |
| WTI Physical (NYMEX) Managed Money |
193,959 |
101,016 |
+92,943 |
+6,490 |
-22,474 |
+28,964 |
1,859,795 |
Net Long β Building |
| WTI Financial (ICE Europe) Managed Money |
11,360 |
21,319 |
-9,959 |
+2,234 |
-5,015 |
+7,249 |
781,193 |
Net Short β Covering |
| ICE Brent Crude (ICE Futures Europe, Fut+Opt Combined) Managed Money |
350,373 |
165,290 |
+185,083 |
-3,227 |
+3,721 |
-6,948 |
3,545,491 |
Net Long β Pulling Back Slightly |
| Combined WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe, Managed Money) |
205,319 |
122,335 |
+82,984 |
+8,724 |
-27,489 |
+36,213 |
β |
Net Long β Sharp Build |
| Combined WTI + Brent (All Benchmarks) |
β |
β |
+268,067 |
β |
β |
+29,265 |
β |
Net Long β WTI Build Outweighs Brent Dip |
Positioning Context & Interpretation
Overall Stance: WTI Length Builds Sharply Into a Rising Tape; Brent Holds Near Its Highs
This week's CFTC Disaggregated COT report (positions as of Tuesday, July 28, 2026, released Friday July 31 and pulled directly from cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm, with a cache-busting retry needed after an initial fetch returned a stale cached copy) shows a sharp week-over-week build across both WTI contracts. NYMEX WTI Physical managed money net long jumped to +92,943 contracts (Long 193,959 / Short 101,016), up +28,964 from +63,979 the prior week β driven by both fresh buying (longs +6,490) and aggressive short-covering (shorts -22,474), a combination that typically signals conviction rather than just position-squaring.
ICE Europe WTI Financial extended its recent de-risking trend: managed money shorts fell further from 26,334 to 21,319 (-5,015) while longs added 2,234 to reach 11,360, narrowing the net short position to -9,959 contracts from -17,208 the prior week β a +7,249 improvement, the second consecutive week of meaningful short-covering in this leg. Blending both confirmed NYMEX and ICE Europe Managed Money readings gives a combined WTI net long of +82,984 contracts, up +36,213 (+77%) w/w β one of the larger single-week combined WTI builds in the series to date. This lines up cleanly with the price action: EIA's WTI spot price (RWTC) jumped +$7.81/bbl to $88.58 for the week ending July 24, a second consecutive sharp weekly gain.
ICE Brent Crude's own Commitments of Traders Report (published separately by ICE Futures Europe, not CFTC) is also confirmed for July 28, 2026 this run β sourced from ICE's own COTHist2026.csv historical bulk-data file (Futures and Options Combined report), supplied locally rather than fetched from ICE's Report Center portal (which remains gated behind a click-through agreement protected by a reCAPTCHA that this run does not attempt to bypass). Brent managed money net long eased modestly to +185,083 contracts (Long 350,373 / Short 165,290), down -6,948 from +192,031 the prior week β a small give-back after the sharp mid-July surge (net long jumped from roughly +55k to +170k in the week of July 14 alone), rather than a sharp reversal. Having a genuine bulk-data source this run also allowed the full 2026 weekly Brent history in the chart above to be corrected: several weeks from January through mid-July had previously been sourced inconsistently (a mix of the futures-only report and some carried-forward or uncertain values); all 30 weeks of 2026 have now been re-pulled from this same combined-report file for consistency. Combined WTI+Brent net long is now +268,067 contracts, up +29,265 w/w β WTI's build more than offsetting Brent's modest pullback.
Context: WTI is the clear driver of this week's move: speculative length is building aggressively on both the NYMEX and ICE Europe legs into a fast-rising spot price, consistent with the ongoing Iran-US conflict and Strait of Hormuz risk premium continuing to dominate the physical and futures balance. The WTI NYMEX long/short ratio has widened to 1.92x (from 1.52x the prior week), reflecting the shift toward a more one-sided, bullishly-positioned market. Brent, meanwhile, is consolidating near the highs of its own recent surge rather than reversing it. Across the full 2021-2026 history, combined WTI+Brent managed-money net long has ranged from roughly +14k (Oct 2025 trough) to +724k (Feb 2021 peak); at +268.1k, current positioning sits in the upper-middle of that historical range.