Every Friday afternoon, the US futures regulator publishes a set of tables showing who holds what in the futures markets. Fund managers, banks, hedgers and small traders are all in there, grouped by type. Forex traders use it to see whether big speculators are leaning long or short the euro, the yen or gold.
This guide covers what the Commitments of Traders (COT) report contains, when it comes out, which version to read and where its limits are.
Who publishes it and when
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) publishes the COT report every week. It is free on the CFTC website.
The timing matters more than most beginners realise:
- Data as of: close of business on Tuesday.
- Released: Friday at 3:30pm Eastern Time.
- Holiday weeks: when a US federal holiday falls in the week, the release usually moves back by a day or more. The CFTC posts the revised schedule.
So the positions you read on Friday afternoon are already three trading days old. If the market moved hard on Wednesday or Thursday, the report won't show how traders reacted.
Where the numbers come from
Clearing members, futures brokers and foreign brokers report the positions of large traders to the CFTC. A trader becomes "reportable" once their position in a contract passes a reporting level the CFTC sets for that market.
Everything left over is called non-reportable. It is simply total open interest minus the reportable positions. In practice it is a rough proxy for smaller traders.
The three versions of the report
The CFTC splits the same underlying data in different ways. You will see three main versions.
| Report | Markets covered | Trader groups |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy | All futures markets | Commercials, non-commercials, non-reportables |
| Disaggregated | Physical commodities (energy, metals, agriculture) | Producer/merchant/processor/user, swap dealers, managed money, other reportables, non-reportables |
| Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) | Financial futures (currencies, stock indices, interest rates) | Dealer/intermediary, asset manager/institutional, leveraged funds, other reportables, non-reportables |
Each version comes in two forms: futures only, and futures and options combined. The combined form converts options into a futures-equivalent position. Pick one and stick with it, because the numbers differ.
For a forex trader the Legacy and TFF reports are the useful ones. For gold or oil, the Legacy and Disaggregated reports are.
What the groups mean in plain terms
Legacy report
- Commercials are businesses using futures to hedge real-world exposure. An exporter who will receive euros in three months might sell euro futures to lock in a rate. Their positions are mostly hedges, so they often move against price.
- Non-commercials are large speculators: funds and big traders betting on direction. This is the group most COT charts show.
- Non-reportables are the smaller traders left over.
TFF report (financials)
- Dealers/intermediaries are mostly banks. They often sit on the other side of their clients' trades.
- Asset managers/institutional include pension funds, insurers and mutual funds. Their currency positions can be hedges on foreign holdings.
- Leveraged funds are hedge funds and commodity trading advisers. Traders who want "speculative money" in currencies usually watch this group.
Disaggregated report (commodities)
- Managed money is the speculative group for gold, oil and other commodities. It covers funds and trading advisers.
Net positioning: the number most traders use
The simplest reading is the net position: longs minus shorts for one group.
Worked example (illustrative numbers): in the Legacy report for euro FX futures, non-commercials hold 210,000 long contracts and 95,000 short contracts.
- Net = 210,000 − 95,000 = +115,000 contracts (net long).
- Last week the net was +102,000, so the weekly change is +13,000.
- One euro FX contract is €125,000, so the net long is roughly 115,000 × €125,000 = €14.4 billion.
- If total open interest is 700,000 contracts, that net is about 16% of open interest.
A raw net number on its own tells you little. Is +115,000 a lot? You only know by comparing it with the past. That is where the COT index comes in. It ranks the current net against its own range over a lookback, often three years. A reading near 100 means speculators are as long as they have been in that period. A reading near 0 means they are as short as they have been. We cover how to calculate it in the next article in this series.
Currency futures are quoted against the dollar
The CME's currency futures (6E for the euro, 6B for sterling, 6J for the yen, 6C for the Canadian dollar and so on) are all priced in US dollars per unit of the foreign currency.
That means:
- A net long in 6E is a bet on the euro rising against the dollar. It lines up directly with EURUSD.
- A net long in 6J is a bet on the yen rising against the dollar. That is bearish USDJPY, because the yen is the second currency in that pair.
- A net long in 6C is bearish USDCAD for the same reason.
For pairs where the dollar comes first, you invert the reading. For crosses such as EURJPY, there is no single contract. You compare the two legs separately and infer a view. Nobody in the report is trading EURJPY itself.
What the report is good for
Used sensibly, the COT report helps with three things:
- Spotting crowded trades. When one group is at the extreme of its multi-year range, there are fewer new buyers (or sellers) left to push price further.
- Confirming a trend. A rising market with speculators steadily adding longs is a healthier picture than one where they are quietly reducing.
- Setting a weekly bias. Some traders use it as a background filter and then look for entries on their usual charts.
What it can't do
The report has real limits, and ignoring them is how traders get hurt:
- It is weekly. You get one snapshot every seven days.
- It lags. The data is three days old on release.
- It is not a timing tool. Positioning can stay extreme for months while price keeps trending.
- Commercial positions are hedges. A big commercial short in a rising market is often producers locking in prices. It isn't a forecast.
- It covers futures only. Most forex trading happens in the over-the-counter spot market. Futures show one slice of the market.
- It says nothing about your CFD broker's clients. Retail sentiment data is a different source.
Treat the report as context. Price action still decides the entry, the stop and whether you are wrong.
FAQ
What time is the COT report released?
Friday at 3:30pm Eastern Time, with data as of the previous Tuesday. Holiday weeks can push it later.
Is the COT report free?
Yes. The CFTC publishes current and historical reports on its website at no cost.
Which COT report should I use for forex?
The TFF report gives the most detail for currency futures, with leveraged funds and asset managers shown separately. The Legacy report has a longer history and is what most COT charts show.
Does the COT report include spot forex?
No. It covers regulated US futures and options only.
Trading involves risk. This article is general education, not financial advice.