New Hedger Highs in Russell 2000, Bonds and Milk; New Low in Copper

The report dated 8 September puts nine markets at the edge of their three-year positioning range: six at lows, three at highs. The low side is last week’s farm cluster, intact — Corn, Wheat, Soybeans and Cotton at the 1st percentile, Sugar at a fresh three-year record — with Copper added to it; Corn, Wheat and Cotton came off the records they set a week ago, but none of last week’s five lows has left the board. All six trade in the upper third of their one-year price range, which is where producers sell forward, so a hedger short this deep describes the rally more than it predicts its end. The three highs are all new: the E-mini Russell 2000, the 30-Year T-Bond and Class III Milk. Lean Hogs, last week’s only high, dropped back out of the top five percent.

Market	Side	Percentile	New
Sugar #11	▼ LOW	1st
Corn	▼ LOW	1st
Wheat (Chicago SRW)	▼ LOW	1st
Soybeans	▼ LOW	1st
E-mini Russell 2000	▲ HIGH	99th	New
Cotton #2	▼ LOW	1st
Copper	▼ LOW	2nd	New
30-Year U.S. T-Bond	▲ HIGH	96th	New
Class III Milk	▲ HIGH	96th	New

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Sugar #11 — commercials at a 3-year LOW (fresh record)

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 1st percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. That is a fresh record for the window. Net: -312,352 contracts (as of 2026-09-08).

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Corn — commercials at a 3-year LOW

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 1st percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. Net: -780,916 contracts (as of 2026-09-08).

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Wheat (Chicago SRW) — commercials at a 3-year LOW

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 1st percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. Net: -83,793 contracts (as of 2026-09-08).

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Soybeans — commercials at a 3-year LOW

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 1st percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. Net: -342,895 contracts (as of 2026-09-08).

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E-mini Russell 2000 — commercials at a 3-year HIGH

Commercial Net sits at the 99th percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net buyers. Net: +77,130 contracts (as of 2026-09-08). New this week.

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Cotton #2 — commercials at a 3-year LOW

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 1st percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. Net: -174,281 contracts (as of 2026-09-08).

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Copper — commercials at a 3-year LOW

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 2nd percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net sellers. Net: -111,865 contracts (as of 2026-09-08). New this week.

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30-Year U.S. T-Bond — commercials at a 3-year HIGH

Commercial Net sits at the 96th percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net buyers. Net: +137,912 contracts (as of 2026-09-08). New this week.

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Class III Milk — commercials at a 3-year HIGH

Producer/Merchant Net sits at the 96th percentile of its ~3-year range — the commercials (hedgers, the “smart-money” side) have been heavy net buyers. Net: +6,083 contracts (as of 2026-09-08). New this week.

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The hedging program

Where each market’s tracked COT net sits inside its own trailing six-month range — above the midpoint of that range or below it. This is the same positioning read at close quarters, and it answers a different question from the extremes above: a book can sit at a three-year low and still have been working higher for six months. What follows is only what MOVED — the markets that crossed that midpoint with this week’s report.

16 programs read above the midpoint of their own trailing six-month range this week, 23 below. Three crossed it with this report — Platinum from above to below, Soybean Oil from below to above and Japanese Yen from above to below. Two of the three undo turns made in last week’s issue: Soybean Oil had crossed downward then, and the yen upward.

Market	Turned	6-month program
Platinum	from above the midpoint	▼ below midpoint
Soybean Oil	from below the midpoint	▲ above midpoint
Japanese Yen	from above the midpoint	▼ below midpoint

Platinum — the program turns bearish

In the CFTC report of 2026-09-08, Producer/Merchant Net crossed the midpoint of its own trailing six-month range: it now sits below that midpoint, where the previous report still had it above. It cleared that midpoint by 1.4% of the window’s own range — a crossing on the definition, and a coin-flip in fact.

Soybean Oil — the program turns bullish

In the CFTC report of 2026-09-08, Producer/Merchant Net crossed the midpoint of its own trailing six-month range: it now sits above that midpoint, where the previous report still had it below. It cleared that midpoint by 4.7% of the window’s own range.

Japanese Yen — the program turns bearish

In the CFTC report of 2026-09-08, Commercial Net crossed the midpoint of its own trailing six-month range: it now sits below that midpoint, where the previous report still had it above. It cleared that midpoint by 50.0% of the window’s own range — which is all the distance there is: the net now sits at the bottom of its six-month window.

It got there in one report: Commercial Net fell from +97,561 contracts to −14,041, the largest one-week move for this market in an archive that starts in June 2021, while the yen futures price rose 4.2%. This is the book whose rebuild The Cheaper Instrument counted on 6 September as a test met, naming a long that keeps climbing through the Bank of Japan’s meeting on the 18th as the confirmation to watch; a week before that meeting, the book is net short. The report was taken in the week before the September contract expires, when a roll can swell open interest (up 87,753 here), but across the 20 earlier reports from that week the net never moved more than 30,963 contracts — and the report dated 15 September, the first without that contract, is published on the day of the meeting.