Heating Oil COT Report
The Commitment of Traders (COT) report shows how the largest traders are positioned in Heating Oil futures each week. The CFTC splits open interest into speculators (managed money) and commercial hedgers, so you can see who is leaning which way. Tracking when Heating Oil speculative positioning reaches an extreme, and how speculators line up against commercials, is one of the most widely followed sentiment tools in futures.
What drives Heating Oil positioning
In energy, commercials are producers, refiners and merchants hedging output and crack spreads, while speculators chase momentum. Crowded speculative extremes in Heating Oil frequently coincide with exhaustion in the prevailing move. Heating oil positioning reflects winter heating demand, distillate inventories and its role as a proxy for diesel and jet fuel.
How to read the Heating Oil COT report
Read Heating Oil through the 52-week z-score, which measures how stretched speculative positioning is against the past year of producer and fund flows: strongly positive is crowded long, deeply negative is crowded short. Energy extremes frequently coincide with turns in the underlying move, and the positioning regime separates a healthy trend from a stretched one. Heating-oil extremes carry a winter-demand seasonal tilt, so read them alongside distillate stocks. New here? Begin with how to read the COT report.
COTInsight scores Heating Oil on nine analytical layers every week, the moment the CFTC data lands: the 52-week z-score, the 3-year COT Index, regime classification, price-versus-positioning divergence, open-interest trend and more, with up to ten years of history so you can see how today compares to every prior extreme.
Heating Oil COT report FAQ
Which CFTC report covers Heating Oil?
Heating Oil positioning comes from the CFTC Disaggregated Commitments of Traders report, which splits Heating Oil open interest into Producer/Merchant/Processor/User and Swap Dealer hedgers on one side and Managed Money and Other Reportables on the other. COTInsight reads it directly from the CFTC every week.
When is the Heating Oil COT report updated?
The CFTC releases the Commitments of Traders report every Friday at 3:30pm ET, reflecting positions as of the prior Tuesday. COTInsight recomputes the Heating Oil z-score, COT Index and regime the moment the data lands.
Is Heating Oil COT positioning bullish or bearish right now?
The COT report is a positioning and sentiment gauge, not a direct buy or sell signal: it shows whether speculators are crowded long or short in Heating Oil. COTInsight scores this week's Heating Oil reading on a 52-week z-score, a 3-year COT Index and a positioning regime. Start a free 7-day trial to see the current reading.
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