Commitments Of Traders

COT Report Data, Charts & Index –
Commitments Of Traders

MarketBulls provides you the latest Commitment of Traders report as well as a clean, understandable chart preparation, cot data tables and the historical data for each market for the COT report. You will get all relevant insights for free and on one view.

Below is the latest COT Report which was published on Friday 22-03-2022 after market close at 15:30 CET by the CFTC. The Commitments of Traders Report shows the positions as of Tuesdays close at 20-03-2022.

*Click the futures symbols to draw the chart and get the futures specific insights!

Market		COMMERCIALS				LARGE SPECULATORS				SMALL TRADERS				OPEN INTEREST			NET COMMERCIALS		COT
Date		Long	Change	Short	Change	Long	Change	Short	Change	Long	Change	Short	Change	Value	Change	Change %	Positions	Change %	Index

CFTC COT Report

What is Commitments of Traders Data?

The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is a market report, which is published weekly by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). The COT report gives insights on the positions of different market participants in the US. The Position Data is based on reports by different firms, like clearing members and brokers. The COT classification/ category of each firm is based on the major business purpose. This business purpose is specified by the firm itself and is checked by the CFTC on veracity. At the point of checking the classification, the CFTC does not know the specific reasons for the positions of the traders. That could lead to misleading information, because one trader holds different positions of a specific future for different reasons, but is specified in one classification for the whole report. That’s nothing evil, just something to keep in mind on deeper COT analysis.

Publication Date

When COT is published?

The Commitments of Traders Report is published on every Friday of the week at 03:30 E.T. The latest Cot Data Table contains the positions of the different market participants from Tuesday the same week. The COT report stands for transparency of the futures market and provides all investors the latest information how different market participants are placed with their orders.

CFTC Commitments of Traders Legacy Report –
ICE Futures U.S. – Short Format

Types of COT Reports

The COT Report includes 4 different reports: Legacy, Traders in Financial Futures, Supplemental and Disaggregated.

Legacy Report

The COT Legacy Report is provided as a futures only report and a futures and options report. The Legacy Report classifies all traders in commercial, non-commercial traders and non-reportable traders. MarketBulls provides you the graphical and tabular real time and historical Commitments of Traders Legacy Report for each asset above.

Commercial Traders

The Commercial Traders Classification contains the Hedgers of the markets. All positions of a trader that is listed by the CFTC is categorized as a commercial traders position when the holding purpose is hedging. Typical commercial traders are manufacturers/ producers that are holding positions for their business purpose. In currency futures, the big banks that are putting central bank money into circulation, can be seen as commercials. That includes mainly the central banks and their subordinated entities. A trader can be classified differently on individually futures.

Non-Commercial Traders

On the other hand, the Non-commercial Traders are the Large Speculators. That includes all traders that are not getting classified as commercial traders. The typical business purpose is speculation and investment. Classical Non-Commercial Traders are Hedge Funds and Investment Banks.

Nonreportable Positions

The Nonreportable Positions are just the difference between the positions of reported traders and the long and short open interest of a future. The subtraction of the net long and short positions of commercial and non-commercial traders results in the nonreportable positions. The classifications in commercial or non-commercial traders of these positions are unknown, as well as the number of traders.

Traders in Financial Futures Report

The Traders in Financial Futures Report is a COT Report, which classifies the different market participants in “sell side” and “buy side” entities. The report is available as a futures only report or a combined options and futures report. The report classifies traders into 4 different market participants…

Dealer/ Intermediary

The Dealer/ Intermediary represents the “sell side” of the marketplace. The Dealers may not mainly sell futures, but they design and sell different financial assets to their customers. Their business activities/ products are highly connected to the futures they buy and sell. The Dealer/ Intermediary Classification includes large local and international banks and dealers in different derivates. The other 3 classifications representing the market’s “buy side”.

Asset Manager/ Institutional

Asset Manager/ Institutional are different institutional investors. They are mostly holding the biggest positions of the buy side. The Asset Manager/ Intermediary Classification includes pension & mutual funds, endowments, insurance businesses and investment managers with mainly institutional customers.

Leveraged Funds

The Leveraged Funds Classification contains hedge funds and money managers. That includes CTAs, CPOs and other participants identified by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Other Reportables

Other Reportables contain all traders which are not categorized by the other classifications. These traders are typically in the market for hedging business risks. That often includes central banks, smaller banks, credit unions and any other reported trader by the CFTC.

Disaggregated

This COT report gives more insights on the Commercials and Non-commercial Traders. The Disaggregated report splits the commercial traders into producers, merchants, processors and swap dealers. On the other hand, the Non-commercial Traders are split into managed money and other reportables. This COT report is used to get a transparent view on how the different commercial groups are placed in comparison to the different speculators.

Supplemental

The Supplemental COT Report is specialized on agriculture commodity assets. The report classifies the different market participants into Commercial, Non-commercial and Index Traders. This COT report includes futures and options positions.

Open Interest Data

The COT Open Interest is the total position that entered the market in a specific time. The long open interest should be equal to the short open interest. The overall open interest is the basis of the COT data. Open interest is needed to calculate the nonreportable positions. At the same time, we can use the open interest to analyze the behavior of specific market participants, for example, which percentage of the open interest was entered by the commercials.

cot-trading-open-interest-marketbulls-charts

MarketBulls COT Open Interest Chart

Positions

Net Positions Chart

The raw CFTC data is not very helpful. Standalone long and short positions in their self do not give many insights about the overall positioning of a market participant. For that, we calculate the net positions of every market participant. That gives a much clearer view on the overall positioning in that market. The comparison of the net positions is giving us the first understanding of the overall situation. You can get the chart and historical comparison on each market on the overview table.

marketbulls-cot-net-position-calculation-example

commitments-of-traders-net-positions-marketbulls-chart

MarketBulls COT Net Positions Chart

MarketBulls COT Open Interest Chart

Index

COT Index Charts

The net positions can give us first impressions of the positioning, but to view the ratio between the net positioning of each participant to the historical net positioning is much more important. The COT Index brings the actual net positions in perspective to the historical net position data. For that, we provide you with 2 Cot indexes: The 6-month cot index and 36-month cot index. Important for the calculation are the last net position, the lowest low of each period (3 years/ 36 months or 6 months) as well as the highest high in the same period. With this index, you can clearly see if the participants are extremely long or short with their net positions.

marketbulls-cot-index-calculation-formular

MarketBulls COT Index Chart

Trading Insights

How to use COT Data for Trading?

To use the COT report & charts for your own trading, you must analyze the net positioning of the different market participants as well as the long and short extremes on a specific period (36 or 6 months). For deeper insights you can use our free Cot index, which puts the net positions in perspective to the extremes of the period. That is how you analyze a cot report correctly. A correct cot analysis can make you a participant for a long-term trend which is already in progress or is just evolving with a market reversal.

Implementation

There is no Holy Grale

The COT report gives us a clear understanding of the overall market situation. But it is not a timing instrument and does not give any clear information when to enter the market. We can get insights if a trend will remain, or a reversal is taking place. With that, you should use the cot analysis in combination with seasonal tendencies and actual entry techniques. Use the Cot report as part of your higher timeframe and fundamental analysis to get clear institutional insights.

CFTC: Commodity Futures
Trading Commission

COT Report Data, Charts & Index –Commitments Of Traders

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