Copper holds near its highs while hedge funds cut their long 42%Copper FuturesCOMEX_DL:HG1!NightbricksCopper has stayed above 6.40 dollars a pound on every CFTC report Tuesday since mid-August. On October 20 it was 6.48, only 3.3 percent below September 22. The COT report shows the hedge fund money behind the rally is leaving. The exit. On September 22, Managed Money (hedge funds and CTAs) was net long 82,649 COMEX copper contracts. By October 20 the net long was 48,009, down 42 percent in four weeks and the smallest since April 7, 2026. Mostly longs closing. Fund long contracts fell from 96,824 to 67,861, a 30 percent cut. That is 84 percent of the drop in the net. Short contracts rose 40 percent to 19,852, the most since July 2025. Fewer bulls, more bears. The number of funds long fell from 93 to 79, the fewest since April. Funds short rose from 22 to 34, the most since June 2025. Someone else is buying. Open interest rose from 321,565 to 341,240 contracts, the highest since July 2024, while fund longs fell. The new positions are being held by traders other than hedge funds. How extreme. The 52 week z-score swung from plus 1.69 to minus 1.38 in four reports, which our regime engine reads as Building Short. The three year COT Index is still 72, because the long was so large to begin with. Funds have been net long every week since January 7, 2025. Metals compared. Gold and silver longs have been trimmed for weeks and palladium is an outright short. Copper was the last metal where funds were still crowded long. What we are watching. Whether the long count keeps falling toward 70 funds. Whether shorts keep rising while price holds, which would set up a squeeze. And open interest: if it falls along with fund longs, the market is deleveraging rather than changing hands. Data: CFTC Commitments of Traders (Disaggregated, futures and options combined), read through COTInsight. Not investment advice. Futures carry substantial risk.