Commitments of Traders

In forex trading, the COT report is often combined with fundamental analysis to assess currency strength. For example, if the COT report shows a strong net long position on the euro while economic indicators suggest a strengthening Eurozone economy, this alignment can boost confidence in a bullish euro trade. Historical analysis is especially valuable for commodities or currencies with seasonal trading patterns.

Treasury securities, Eurodollars, stocks, VIX and Bloomberg commodity index. These reports have a futures-only report and a combined futures and options report, the latter the one we want to use. The TFF report breaks down the reportable open interest positions into Dealer/Intermediary, Asset Manager/Institutional, Leveraged Funds, and Other Reportables. As part of the classification of traders, there are certain types, most notoriously, the large specs (smart money) and the commercial accounts, that due to their business purpose, will provide the most insights. Other types of traders that will also reveal snippets of valuable information, and as I like to make the analogy, also leave a trail of breadcrumbs along the way, include leverage funds, asset managers, and dealers.

Currency Groupings

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. This is especially important as market conditions can change in an instant.

1. In this article, we’ll explore the COT report, discuss its components, and explain how traders can use this information to gain insights into market trends and sentiment.
2. 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.
3. The original version of the COT reports can be found on the CFTC website.
4. This is especially important as market conditions can change in an instant.
5. These account types are referred to as large specs and we may also include leverage funds (also known as speculators).
6. For instance, if technical analysis suggests a potential uptrend, a rise in net long positions by commercials in the trader’s COT report would strengthen this bullish outlook.

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. After setting up the Web Query, we can now proceed to create formulas to pick up the products (i.e. forex) we want for our report. Gold edges lower in the second half of the day and trades below $2,620, looking to end the week marginally lower. Although the cautious market mood helps XAU/USD hold its ground, growing expectations for a less-dovish Fed policy outlook caps the pair’s upside.

Simply put, even the disaggregated data is too aggregated to be said to accurately represent the market. The report provides investors with up-to-date information on futures market operations and increases the transparency of these complex exchanges. It is used by many commitment of traders forex futures traders as a market signal on which to trade. The Commitments of Traders reports are a great tool to help us understand the market sentiment, but these reports should serve us only as a beneficial advantage to our analysis and there should be discretion exercised while using them.

Reporting levels established

It’s absolutely essential that all the explanations provided above are adjusted to the circumstances of events (dynamics) present in the market. This means that any major fundamental release, namely central bank policy meetings, geopolitical events or economic data, may distort the analysis of the CoT report as players reassess their exposure in the market. In this section of the CFTC website, any entity or individual is free to download the historical data accumulated over the years of the different classified CoT reports. This site is very handy in case you want to crunch the numbers and conduct your own backtesting.

Categories:

1. The report provides investors with up-to-date information on futures market operations and increases the transparency of these complex exchanges.
2. The CFTC receives the data from the reporting firms on Wednesday morning and then corrects and verifies the data for release by Friday afternoon.
3. These represent transparency and create a solid foundation for developing effective strategies.
4. Using COT data in conjunction with technical analysis can improve the accuracy of reversal predictions.
5. The disaggregated COT report is another one that is commonly known by traders.
6. These filter options help traders conduct more precise analyses and develop specific strategies for each COT market.

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. To help you analyze important trends and movements using the Commitment of Traders reports, Tradingster.com provides up-to-date COT reports (including COT reports’ historical data) and free COT charts. For example, a trader with a bearish bias on a currency pair based on economic data might reconsider their position if the COT report indicates significant net long positions held by non-commercials.

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. Generally, the data in the COT reports is from Tuesday and released Friday. The CFTC receives the data from the reporting firms on Wednesday morning and then corrects and verifies the data for release by Friday afternoon. Because at the end of the day, volatility and valuations are a function of liquidity in the markets. Open interest is the answer, as it’s a measure closely linked to liquidity. Remember, open interest is the total number of outstanding contracts, while volumes are the total transactions that took place.

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. The COT provides an overview of what the key market participants think and helps determine the likelihood of a trend continuing or coming to an end. If commercial and non-commercial long positions are both growing, for example, that is a bullish signal for the price of the underlying commodity. 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.

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. The COT report gauges market sentiment, revealing the positioning of various trading groups. This information can be used to assess whether the market leans bullish or bearish, potentially leading to adjustments in trading biases.