COT report: Commitments of Traders data

What is the COT report?

The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is published every week by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It shows the open positions held in U.S. futures markets by different types of traders, as of the close on Tuesday. It covers every market where at least 20 traders hold positions above the CFTC's reporting levels, from the E-mini S&P 500 and the euro to gold, crude oil and corn.

Because large traders must report their positions every day, the COT report is the most complete public view of who is long and who is short in futures. Trading Evolution reads the official figures directly from the CFTC's public API and recalculates this page as soon as a new report is released.

Who are the traders in the COT report?

• Large speculators (non-commercials): hedge funds, commodity trading advisors and other large traders who trade for profit. Their positioning often follows and amplifies trends.
• Commercials: producers, merchants, banks and other businesses that use futures to hedge real-world risk. They tend to buy when prices fall and sell when prices rise.
• Small traders (non-reportables): all positions below the CFTC's reporting thresholds, mostly retail and smaller funds.
• Financial futures (TFF report): dealers, asset managers (pension funds, mutual funds), leveraged funds (hedge funds) and other reportables.
• Commodities (Disaggregated report): producers / merchants, swap dealers, managed money (hedge funds and CTAs) and other reportables.

How to read COT data

1. Net position. Long contracts minus short contracts. A positive net position means the group is net long; a negative one means it is net short.
2. Weekly change. How much the net position moved since the previous report. Large changes show where money is flowing this week.
3. % of open interest. The size of a group's long or short positions compared with all open contracts, so you can compare markets of very different sizes.
4. COT index. Where today's net position sits between its 3-year low (0) and 3-year high (100). Readings above 90 or below 10 mark extreme, crowded positioning.
5. Open interest. The total number of open contracts. Rising open interest with a rising net position means new money is entering; falling open interest points to positions being closed.

How traders use the COT report

COT data is a weekly positioning tool, not an entry signal. Traders use it in three main ways:

• Trend confirmation: large speculators adding to net longs in a rising market confirm the trend has support.
• Extremes: a COT index near 0 or 100 means a crowded trade. When everyone is already long or short, the risk of a sharp reversal grows.
• Commercial hedging: in commodities, commercials at their most net long in years often coincide with important lows, and the opposite near highs.

Combine positioning with price action, the economic calendar (see our Fed Rate Monitor) and intraday order flow. Our free NinjaTrader 8 indicators, such as the footprint and cumulative delta, show the aggressive buying and selling behind each move.

When is COT data released?

The CFTC releases the COT report every Friday at 3:30 p.m. New York time, with positions as of the previous Tuesday. Weeks with a U.S. federal holiday are usually released one business day later. The countdown at the top of this page shows the next expected release.

Our server checks the CFTC every hour, and every 5 minutes on Friday afternoons. As soon as a new report appears, every table and chart on this page is recalculated automatically.

Limits of COT data

• COT data has a three-day lag: positions are taken on Tuesday and published on Friday.
• This page shows futures-only reports; option positions are not included.
• The CFTC classifies each trader by their main business, so one firm appears in a single category even if it trades for several reasons.
• Positioning describes the past, not the future: it is information, not investment advice.

Related concepts and tools

• Fed Rate MonitorFOMC rate cut and hike probabilities for every Fed meeting.
• Free NinjaTrader 8 indicators15 ICT and order flow tools, free with lifetime access.
• TEVO Cumulative DeltaSee aggressive buying and selling behind each move.
• Economic calendarFree live economic calendar: today's and this week's market-moving releases with actual, forecast and previous values, impact filter, FOMC and COT dates, plus a guide.
• BacktestingBacktest trading strategies free in your browser: 9 templates, 20+ indicators, NinjaTrader, TradingView and MT5 data import, equity curve, drawdown and trade list.
• Trading journalFree trading journal in your browser: import NinjaTrader, MT4/MT5, Tradovate or TradingView trades and get profit factor, Sharpe, drawdown and Monte Carlo odds.
• Futures position size calculatorWork out how many futures contracts fit your risk per trade: official tick value, stop in ticks or points, micro and E-mini contracts, DAX and Euro Stoxx.

Frequently asked questions

Related articles

• How to Read the COT Report: Commitments of Traders ExplainedThe COT report shows who holds the open positions in US futures markets, by category of trader. How the legacy, disaggregated and TFF versions differ, how to read net positioning, when the data come out and what they cannot tell you.
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