Nasdaq fund positioning is the shortest since 2019
Asset managers and leveraged funds held a combined net short of 27,460 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contracts in the CFTC’s August 11 report. At the aligned NQ futures close of 29,626 and the contract’s $20 multiplier, that equals −$16.3 billion of notional exposure, down $7.9 billion in one week. It is the most net-short dollar exposure in the chart’s 2019–present window.
Our CFTC file begins in 2006 and reached −$19.0 billion that June; today’s print is therefore a seven-year extreme rather than a full-history record. These positions can also include hedges. A crowded short can become fuel when price rises, but the reading does not forecast the Nasdaq’s next move.
Commitment of Traders — all 13 tracked futures markets and the live dollar-exposure view
This chart is a frozen capture — the numbers above are as of Aug 11, 2026 (CFTC) and will not update. The live page recomputes daily from the same dataset. A square version of this chart is available for feeds that crop landscape images.
