Gold Physical Delivery & Positioning Brief — October 19, 2026

Executive summary

Physical delivery activity on the COMEX Gold (GC) contract narrowed significantly to start the week, with only 7 delivery notices issued and stopped on October 19, 2026. This brings month-to-date (MTD) deliveries to 13,079 contracts. The quiet session represents a sharp cooling following the 872 notices tendered on October 16. Meanwhile, speculative positioning remains heavily lopsided: the latest CFTC Commitment of Traders (COT) cross-check shows Managed Money net long by 107,089 contracts, indicating high speculative conviction even as physical delivery velocity moderates past mid-month.

Delivery intentions (today + MTD context)

• Current session (October 19, 2026):
  • Contracts issued / stopped: 7 contracts (7 issued, 7 stopped).
  • Contract details: OCTOBER 2026 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES settled at $4,139.00 USD, with an intent date of October 19 and an assigned delivery date of October 21, 2026.
  • Month-to-date cumulative: 13,079 contracts.
• Historical context and trend:
  • Physical tenders experienced an intermittent surge on Friday, October 16, totaling 872 contracts (552 COMEX 100 Gold and 320 Micro Gold).
  • The current session's decline to 7 notices mirrors the mid-month lull observed on October 13 (1 notice) and October 12 (44 notices).
  • Overall, October physical deliveries have been substantial, expanding from 11,465 MTD contracts on October 1 to 13,079 MTD contracts today. This comfortably outpaces delivery volume seen in late September (which stood at 4,183 MTD contracts on September 25).

Warehouse stocks

CME does not publish warehouse stocks for this metal in the current data feed (warehouse_stocks is null). As a result, current eligible and registered physical stock inventories cannot be verified directly against outstanding delivery obligations.

COT cross-check

The CFTC COT positioning data as of October 17, 2026, highlights a market driven by speculative length:

• Open interest: 396,345 contracts.
• Managed Money: 124,747 long contracts versus 17,658 short contracts, producing a net long position of +107,089 contracts.
• Producer/Merchant/Processor/User: 18,386 long contracts versus 36,823 short contracts, maintaining a net commercial hedge short of -18,437 contracts.

Physical vs. positioning divergence: Managed Money maintains an aggressive 7:1 long-to-short ratio. While high early-to-mid October delivery volumes (13,079 MTD) partially validated strong physical demand, the drop to single-digit daily tenders suggests that immediate physical off-take is tapering while paper spec positioning remains stretched near elevated settlement prices ($4,139.00 USD).

Risks and watchpoints

• Speculative positioning overhang: With Managed Money net long exceeding 107,000 contracts, a lack of renewed physical uptake or a failure to reclaim early-month settlement highs (e.g., $4,191.00 on October 9) leaves the market susceptible to long liquidation.
• Absence of inventory data: Because COMEX warehouse stock figures are unavailable in this feed, physical tightness cannot be evaluated via eligible-to-registered cover ratios.
• Late-cycle October rolls: As the October contract moves through the second half of its delivery cycle, watch whether tenders dry up entirely or if another concentrated delivery wave emerges before month-end.