Commitments of Traders (COT) Report Data

The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is a weekly breakdown of who holds U.S.-listed futures positions, published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The charts above turn that report into net positions for three trader groups, plotted against price for each currency, metal, crude oil and bitcoin contract.

What the COT report measures

The CFTC, an independent U.S. agency overseeing futures and options markets, requires exchanges and clearing firms to report positions above set thresholds and compiles them into the COT report. It is released on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, with positions counted as of the preceding Tuesday, the report date in the history tables.

For forex, the report covers currency futures traded on U.S. exchanges, such as euro, yen or peso contracts. It does not capture the spot interbank market, where most currency trading happens.

The three groups on these charts

The CFTC’s legacy categories are:

• Commercials: traders that use futures to hedge business risk, such as producers, exporters, importers and banks. Their positions often move opposite to price because they hedge into strength or weakness.
• Large speculators (non-commercials): reportable traders trading for profit, such as hedge funds and commodity trading advisers.
• Small speculators (non-reportables): everyone below the reporting threshold. This figure is not reported directly. It is what remains of open interest after the reportable positions are counted.

How to read net positions and open interest

Each group’s net position is its long contracts minus its short contracts:

Net = long contracts − short contracts

Every futures contract has one buyer and one seller, so total longs equal total shorts. When one group is net long, the other two must be net short by the same combined amount. A large speculator net short of 100,000 contracts therefore means commercials and small speculators together are net long 100,000.

Open interest is the number of contracts still open, meaning not yet offset or delivered. It provides the scale for comparing a net figure:

Net as % of open interest = net ÷ open interest × 100

Hypothetical example: in one market, large speculators are net long 40,000 contracts and open interest is 200,000. That is 20%. In a second market, a net long of 40,000 against 800,000 open interest is only 5%. Extremes are best judged against each market’s own history, which the 1Y, 2Y and All ranges let you view.

A rising net position with rising open interest means new positions are being opened. A rising net with falling open interest can simply reflect the other side closing out.

Why some currency charts are inverted

CME currency futures are quoted as U.S. dollars per unit of the foreign currency. A long yen future gains when the yen strengthens, which is when USD/JPY falls. The charts for USD/JPY, USD/CAD, USD/CHF and USD/MXN are labeled “inverted” so that price and positioning point the same way: upward means the foreign currency is gaining against the dollar.

What moves the numbers

Hedging demand drives commercial positions, for example exporters locking in exchange rates or miners selling future output. Speculative positions shift with interest rate expectations, central bank decisions and data releases on the economic calendar. Quarterly contract expiries can distort open interest temporarily, as positions roll from the expiring contract to the next one.

Limits of COT data

• Lag: positions are three days old on release and only weekly, so intraday or short-term moves are missed.
• Context, not timing: an extreme net position shows crowding, not when it will unwind.
• Labels are reported categories: “commercial” describes how a trader is classified, not whether its view on price is right.
• Futures only: spot and retail broker positions are excluded.