Commitments of Traders COT reports and charts

30 Nov Commitments of Traders COT reports and charts

They are speculators with smaller accounts who are also looking to make money from the futures market. The Commitment of Traders (COT) report is a valuable resource for forex traders, providing insights into the positioning of different market participants. By analyzing the COT report, traders can gauge market sentiment and potential price movements. The disaggregated COT report is another one that is commonly known by traders.

LEARN HOW TO READ THE COT REPORTS

Our independence from brokers and the companies we introduce, our commitment to maximum transparency, and our extensive experience in financial markets contribute to our ranking criteria. This ensures that we accurately convey facts and events so that investors and traders can read our content with confidence and make informed choices. As we always say, never rely on one tool or indicator to decide your trades. There are two ways to use the COT report to spot potential reversals in the forex market.

Don’t Ignore the Commercial Traders

They then use the futures market primarily to hedge the net commitment of traders report forex risk exposure they gain from these swap transactions. Getting your hands on the Commitment of Traders (COT) report data is quite straightforward. The official and definitive source is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) website itself (cftc.gov). You’ll typically find the reports listed under their market data sections. The CFTC offers the raw data, usually in plain text files, which some analysts prefer for custom processing. Knowing this official source is step one in understanding the commitment of traders report explained.

The legacy COT simply shows the market for a commodity broken into long, short, and spread positions for non-commercial traders, commercial traders, and non-reportable positions (small traders). The total open interest is given as well as changes in open interest. The report tracks positioning in currency futures, not the huge OTC Forex spot market. However, the big players active in futures (banks, funds) are usually major players in the spot market too. Their collective sentiment and actions captured in the futures data (especially the TFF report) provide strong clues about underlying pressures likely affecting the spot market.

Why Is COT Data So Important for Traders?

With access to COT data, investors can spot long-term market trends and modify their portfolios appropriately. When it comes to the COT data analysis, this may serve as the foundation for professional traders to develop effective trading strategies and make informed, prudent decisions at last. The most recent COT data is also used by analysts to better evaluate market sentiment and forecast market movements.

• Very high net long positions among Commercials might suggest they see prices as cheap (potential bottom nearby), while very high net short positions suggest they see prices as expensive (potential top nearby).
• Customized data report results can be downloaded to available formats — CSV, RDF, RSS, TSV, or XML.
• Note that traders are able to report business purpose by commodity and, therefore, can have different classifications in the COT reports for different commodities.
• The page also lets you compare other Currencies or Stocks or Indexes or Commodities against the US Dollar Index, so you can measure their performance against the dollar and see how they are affected by changes in the market.

As retail forex traders, our best bet is to trade like big financial institutions. The Commitments of Traders (COT) reports are provided by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). COT reports provide a breakdown of each Tuesday’s open interest for markets in which 20 or more traders hold positions equal to or above the reporting levels established by the CFTC. Looking at forex trading, the chart below shows GBP/USD with its COT net positions applied. The focus here is on the position levels when it reaches its all-time extreme and the price action development afterwards.

Commitments of Traders COT Report Forex Analysis Excel

We’re also a community of traders that support each other on our daily trading journey. Forex commitment of traders reports are based on the corresponding futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The long version of a COT report, in addition to the information in the short report, groups the data by crop year, where appropriate, and shows the concentration of positions held by the largest four and eight traders.

COT reports are based on position data supplied by reporting firms (FCMs, clearing members, foreign brokers, and exchanges). While the position data is supplied by reporting firms, the actual trader category or classification is based on the predominant business purpose self-reported by traders on the CFTC. For example, traders are classified as non-commercial or commercial, and that holds for every position they have within that particular commodity. This means that an oil company with a small hedge and a much larger speculative trade on crude will have both positions show up in the commercial category. Simply put, even the disaggregated data is too aggregated to be said to accurately represent the market.

• The 2025 COT Report Release Schedule ensures traders have timely access to market data.
• As you incorporate sophisticated analytical tools like the Commitment of Traders report, partnering with a supportive and well-equipped broker becomes even more important.
• It provides a deeper breakdown of the market participants, splitting commercial traders into producers, merchants, processors, users, and swap dealers.
• For many, the Legacy report offers a sufficient commitment of traders report explained perspective.
• Both cases represent negative divergence and reflect that both trader categories are supportive of the latest upside price action.

Effective use of the commitment of traders report explained involves layering its insights onto your existing market analysis framework. The real value in the commitment of traders report explained comes from knowing who these groups are and what typically motivates them. The other method involves noting where the non-commercial traders are accumulating their positions. Remember that non-commercial traders are the big money guys that are interested in making more money. Now that traders know the definitions and what to watch in the COT report.

THE DISAGGREGATED COMMITMENT OF TRADERS (DISAGGREGATED COT) REPORT

Because they operate in the physical market day-in and day-out, Commercials are presumed to possess deep knowledge about fundamental supply, demand, and value. This behavior means their extreme positioning often acts as a potent contrarian indicator. Very high net long positions among Commercials might suggest they see prices as cheap (potential bottom nearby), while very high net short positions suggest they see prices as expensive (potential top nearby).

Weekly market analysis, trade ideas, and tips to reach your financial goals. Now that it’s in the AUDUSD COT data sheet all we need to do is drag the formula for the flip down to this row and get this week’s AUDUSD price to paste into the columns to the right of it. You can just google AUDUSD price today and paste the most recent value into the price cell. As you can see all the data has now been filtered for the most recent date. We now want to copy and paste this data into our spreadsheet that included all the COT report data from 2006.

Enhance your trading journey with a broker that provides cutting-edge technology within a secure, regulated framework. Discover how Opofinance supports traders who utilize tools like the commitment of traders report explained here. Whether looking at raw text or graphical charts, identify the columns showing long, short, and sometimes spreading positions for each trader category. Pay close attention to the columns indicating the change from the previous week and the number of traders in each group. The CFTC offers the COT data in a few different flavors, tailored to specific market types and user needs. Knowing these formats helps you select the most relevant data for your analysis, making the commitment of traders report explained more precise.

Our editorial and marketing teams operate independently, ensuring the accuracy and objectivity of our financial insights. All information on this website is strictly informational and is not to be construed as advocating, promoting or advertising registered or unregistered investments of any kind whatsoever. All of the information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as investment or trading advice.