Copper — Commitment of Traders

Copper futures trade on COMEX in 25,000-pound contracts and are widely regarded as the global economy's pulse — earning the nickname "Dr Copper." Its demand is tied tightly to construction, electrical infrastructure, and manufacturing, so COT positioning in copper functions as a proxy for macro-economic sentiment. Large speculators (commodity trading advisors and hedge funds) dominate the non-commercial side, and their positioning swings widely with growth expectations. When specs are net long at historical extremes, copper is often priced for a soft-landing scenario; when they flip net short, recession fears are usually in the price. Commercial hedgers — miners, fabricators, and wire rod producers — use the market to lock in forward prices, so their positioning reflects real-world supply and demand dynamics. Watching the interaction between record-high speculative longs and commercial hedging pressure is a classic COT signal. The COT Index for copper is particularly useful around Chinese economic data releases, when positioning extremes tend to resolve quickly.