Platinum Futures Commitments of Traders - Week Ending March 13, 2026

Executive summary

This report covers positioning in the NYMEX Platinum futures market for the week ending March 13, 2026. The key development was a significant increase in the Managed Money net long position, driven overwhelmingly by aggressive short-covering. Despite this bullish weekly flow, overall market participation, as measured by Open Interest, continued its multi-month decline, now sitting well below late-2025 highs. Commercials and Swap Dealers remain heavily positioned on the short side, maintaining the market's classic structure of speculators pitted against hedgers. The concentration of short positions among the largest traders remains a notable feature of the market.

Positioning

• Managed Money (Funds): Funds dramatically increased their bullish stance, moving to a net long position of +7,723 contracts. This is the most bullish they have been since mid-January and is a sharp increase from +4,919 contracts in the prior week. The current position is composed of 16,286 long contracts versus only 8,563 short contracts.
• Producer/Merchant (Commercials): Commercials hold a substantial net short position of -14,134 contracts (2,824 long vs. 16,958 short). This position is largely stable week-on-week and remains a significant structural feature, indicating persistent producer hedging.
• Swap Dealers: This category also holds a large net short position of -6,782 contracts (15,923 long vs. 22,705 short), acting as intermediaries between other market participants.
• Extremes vs Recent History: While the Managed Money net long of +7,723 is a multi-week high, it is still less than half the peak bullishness of +16,245 contracts seen on December 23, 2025. Similarly, the commercial net short is large but remains below its recent extreme of -16,827 from the same period.

Flows and week-over-week changes

• Managed Money: The net long position surged by 2,804 contracts. This change was almost entirely fueled by a capitulation of bears, with short positions being cut by a significant 1,933 contracts. New long positions were also added (+871 contracts), but the short-covering was the dominant theme.
• Producer/Merchant: Commercials made minimal changes, with their net position shifting by only -97 contracts, signaling they are content with their current hedge levels.
• Swap Dealers: Reduced their net short position slightly. They trimmed 610 long contracts and 61 short contracts.
• Other Reportables: This category saw a notable liquidation of bullish bets, cutting their long exposure by 2,054 contracts while making only minor adjustments to shorts.
• Overall Market: The aggressive short-covering by funds occurred within a shrinking market, as total Open Interest fell by 1,396 contracts. This suggests the change was driven by position readjustment rather than an influx of new capital.

Commercials vs speculators

• The market displays a clear and classic divergence between commercials and speculators.
• Commercial producers are heavily net short (-14,134 contracts), using the futures market to lock in prices and hedge their physical supply.
• Speculative categories, in contrast, are collectively net long. Managed Money (+7,723), Other Reportables (+6,967), and Non-reportable/Retail traders (+6,226) are all positioned for higher prices.
• Swap Dealers (-6,782 net short) are primarily facilitating these opposing views, taking the other side of speculative longs and commercial shorts.

Open interest and participation

• Total Open Interest (OI) stood at 68,758 contracts, a decrease of 1,396 from the previous week.
• This continues a broader trend of declining participation since the peak of 97,095 contracts on December 23, 2025. The market currently has nearly 30% less overall participation than it did just a few months ago.
• The concentration of positions remains high on the short side. The largest 4 traders by net position hold 31.0% of all short-side contracts, and the largest 8 traders hold 47.6%. This indicates that a few key players, likely large commercials or swap desks, dominate the hedging side of the market.

Price context

• Important Note: The provided price series ends on February 27, 2026, two weeks prior to this COT report's as-of date of March 13. Therefore, the latest positioning changes cannot be directly correlated with price action.
• Leading up to the end of the available price data, Platinum saw a strong rally. The price for the front contract rose from a close of $2,076.5 on February 20 to $2,359.6 on February 27.
• The COT report for the week ending February 27 showed that Managed Money had increased their net long position, consistent with funds buying into that rally.
• The significant short-covering seen in this latest March 13 report may be a reaction to a continuation of that price strength in early March, but this cannot be confirmed with the available data.

Risks and watchpoints

• Short Covering Momentum: The primary driver of the bullish shift this week was short covering. If upward price momentum has continued (in the period for which we lack price data), the remaining 8,563 managed money short contracts are at risk of being squeezed, which could provide further fuel for a rally.
• Waning Conviction: Despite the strong weekly flow, both the absolute level of Managed Money net length and the total Open Interest are significantly below their late-2025 peaks. This suggests that while recent sentiment has turned bullish, the broader, high-conviction speculative interest seen previously has not yet returned to the market.
• Commercial Headwind: The persistent and large commercial net short position will likely act as a natural cap on prices. Producers will use rallies as opportunities to add to their hedges, creating a steady source of selling pressure at higher levels.
• Data Gap: The two-week lag between the latest price data and the current positioning report is a significant watchpoint. The market context for this week's large positioning shift is unclear, and traders should be cautious about drawing conclusions without seeing the corresponding price action.