Capesize Freight Positioning
Capesize Freight positioning comes from the weekly MiFID II Article 58 position report that the trading venue files and ESMA republishes in its register, which splits open interest into investment funds, investment firms and credit institutions, other financial institutions, commercial undertakings and operators with compliance obligations. It shows who holds the open interest each week and which way they lean, the EU counterpart of the CFTC's Commitments of Traders report.
What drives Capesize Freight positioning
Capesize bulkers carry mainly iron ore and coal on long-haul routes, so the market moves with mine exports and steel mill demand. Iron ore shipments from Brazil and Western Australia to China are key trades, which makes Atlantic and Pacific route balances central to the index. Commercial undertakings are shipowners locking in hire and charterers such as miners and commodity traders fixing freight costs. Investment funds trade the Capesize cycle as a read on heavy industrial demand.
How to read Capesize Freight positioning
Read Capesize Freight positioning against its own history: where the investment-fund net sits in its 52-week and 3-year range, and whether commercial hedgers lean the other way. Capesize rates can jump sharply on iron ore demand, so check whether an extreme follows a spike in the index before treating it as a lasting shift in positioning.
This future settles in cash against the Baltic Exchange Capesize 5TC, a weighted average of time charter earnings on five major routes. Panamax Freight and Supramax Freight cover the smaller ship classes, and comparing all three shows whether a move is about iron ore or the wider dry bulk market.
COTInsight scores Capesize Freight every week on the layers that do not need a price: the 52-week z-score, the 3-year COT Index, the regime classifier, momentum and streak, the open-interest trend, concentration, and the positioning cycle. There is no price series for this contract, so no divergence flag and no outcome statistics.
ESMA, MiFID II Article 58 weekly position reports, available free of charge at registers.esma.europa.eu. COTInsight regroups ESMA's position categories into its own columns and calculates its own statistics from them; ESMA does not endorse COTInsight.
Capesize Freight positioning FAQ
Which report covers Capesize Freight?
Capesize Freight positioning comes from the weekly MiFID II Article 58 position report that the trading venue files and ESMA republishes in its register, which splits open interest into investment funds, investment firms and credit institutions, other financial institutions, commercial undertakings and operators with compliance obligations. COTInsight maps investment funds to the speculative side and commercial undertakings plus operators with compliance obligations to the hedging side.
How often is Capesize Freight positioning updated?
Each venue reports positions as of the end of every week. COTInsight checks ESMA's register every week and shows the date of the latest report beside the reading.
Why are there no price statistics for Capesize Freight?
COTInsight has no price series for Capesize Freight, so the page carries no divergence flag and no outcome statistics. The positioning layers do not need a price.
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