Commitments of Traders COT Charts
It is a report that contains a weekly overview of how participants of the futures markets in the U.S. have traded. The report contains all the positions of the main market factors in the United States. The long report, in addition to the information in the short report, also groups the data by crop year, where appropriate, and shows the concentration of positions held by the largest four and eight traders. The Supplemental report is published for Futures-and-Options-Combined in selected agricultural markets and, in addition to showing all the information in the short format, shows positions of Index Traders. It can be a real nuisance to try to incorporate the COT report into your trading plan because the report itself is badly designed and not user-friendly.
How a Commitments of Traders (COT) Report Works, Types, Example
And, despite its limitations, most traders agree that even the questionable data of the COT is better than nothing. Before entering into an FX position, a trader should have an idea of market positioning because this tells him not just what other market players think is going to happen to a given currency but also how fervently players believe this. This knowledge helps a trader better decide when to put on a long or short currency position. If a major currency has a net long or short of 100,000 contracts, that would generally be viewed as being extended. Similarly, if the six major currencies all showed that non-commercial accounts had sizable net currency longs (implying they were short US dollars), that might also raise a red flag.
For the “producer/merchant/processor/user” category, open interest is reported only by long or short positions. The computed amount of spreading is calculated as the number of offsetting futures in different calendar months or offsetting futures and options in the same or different calendar months. Any residual long or short position is reported in the long or short column.
- The CFTC receives the data from the reporting firms on Wednesday morning and then corrects and verifies the data for release by Friday afternoon.
- Traders tend to look at the seven major currencies (yen, euro, Swiss franc, sterling, Aussie, New Zealand, and Canadian dollars) both individually and as a whole.
- For reportable positions, additional data is provided for commercial and non-commercial holdings, spreading, changes from the previous report, percents of open interest by category, and numbers of traders.
- One of its functions is to provide transparency in the financial markets by publishing the Commitment of Traders report.
- With InsiderWeek, you can learn to read the COT report properly and use a COT report trading strategy to achieve your trading goals.
Clearing members, futures commission merchants, and foreign brokers (collectively called reporting firms) file daily reports with the Commission. Those reports commitment of traders report forex show the futures and option positions of traders that hold positions above specific reporting levels set by CFTC regulations. The aggregate of all traders’ positions reported to the Commission usually represents 70 to 90 percent of the total open interest in any given market.
Traders in Financial Futures
Note that traders are able to report business purpose by commodity and, therefore, can have different classifications in the COT reports for different commodities. For one of the reports, Traders in Financial Futures, traders are classified in the same category for all commodities. Interpreting the data can be a complex task, especially for beginners. That’s why I have created a simplified PDF guide that will teach you how to read and interpret the COT Reports with ease.
We recommend that you seek independent financial advice and ensure you fully understand the risks involved before trading. There are two ways to use the COT report to spot potential reversals in the forex market. To use the COT Report as a volume indicator, keep your eyes on the open interest numbers of an asset. When there is a rise in the open interest of an asset, it means more people are trading the futures contract of the asset. The entities above do not offer services to residents of certain jurisdictions including the India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afganistan, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Sudan, South Sudan, Yamen, Cuba, Somalia and others. Intraquotes does not provide any services to any person below 18 years.
- The reports cover a wide range of markets, including key commodities such as gold, oil, and palladium, currencies like EUR/USD and GBP/USD, and global stock indices like the S&P 500.
- InsiderWeek makes it easy for you to understand and effectively use COT data, with a user-friendly interface that allows you to work effortlessly with COT data charts and other COT report information.
- However, many analysts still have not abandoned the old legacy version.
In other words, it is the trader who is classified as commercial or speculative, not the trade. This is why big players like Goldman Sachs applied for (and got) a commercial designation, even though it is obvious many of its trades are actually speculative. Those designated “commercial” can usually get higher leverage from their brokers. Futures, foreign currency and options trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment.
Commercials are not trying to make money from trading currencies — they are making money buying and selling widgets. To be fair, some commercials in Forex might exit the peso short contract by covering (buying it back) if they see an important rising trend, but trying to improve profit margins via currencies is not their core business. Non-reportable traders don’t have the heavy bank accounts of commercial and non-commercial traders. They are speculators with smaller accounts who are also looking to make money from the futures market.
Reports Dated August 26, 2025 – Current Disaggregated Reports:
Traders can organize information by assets, such as gold, oil, or COT futures on currencies like EUR/USD. The Legacy and Disaggregated reports are available in both a short and long format. Using the CFTC Public Reporting Environment will allow you to access these historical reports and select only the dates and contracts you are interested in reviewing. There is not a list of historical release dates; the only available release dates are for the 13 months of reports that are published on the Commission’s website.
Additionally, the data can be categorized by market participants, i.e., Commercials, Large Speculators, and Small Speculators, too. These filter options help traders conduct more precise analyses and develop specific strategies for each COT market. In general, the data is presented in tables, COT graphs, charts, and COT charts to make analysis easier for traders. As a rule, the COT data is updated once a week (weekly COT Report), which allows traders to work with the most up-to-date information.