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The Commitments of Traders report is a free weekly dataset from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that shows who holds positions in U.S. futures markets: producers and hedgers, large speculators, and smaller traders. Commodity traders use the Commitments of Traders report to understand how different groups are positioned in gold, oil, grains and other markets. This guide explains when it comes out, what the categories mean, how to read a single row of the data, and how to use it without overreading it.
What is the Commitments of Traders report?
The CFTC publishes the Commitments of Traders (COT) reports to help the public understand market dynamics. The data comes from reporting firms, including futures brokers, clearing members and exchanges, and covers positions above reporting thresholds the CFTC sets for each market. Traders holding positions at or above those levels are “reportable”; everyone else is lumped together as “non-reportable”.
One point matters before anything else: the CFTC does not analyze the data or make recommendations based on it. The report is raw positioning data, not a trading signal. Anything you read about what the numbers “mean” is interpretation layered on top by the person writing it, including this article.
When the COT report is released
According to the CFTC, the reports are generally released Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, using data as of the close of business on the previous Tuesday. The CFTC receives the data Wednesday morning and spends the next few days checking it. When a U.S. federal holiday falls in the week, the release is usually pushed back, and the CFTC posts the revised schedule on its site.
That three-day lag is important. By the time you read the report, positions may already have changed, especially in a fast-moving week. If a market moved sharply on a Wednesday or Thursday, the Friday report will not show how traders reacted to it.
The main versions of the report
There are four report formats. Each one slices the same open interest into different trader groups, so pick the one that matches the market you follow.
- Legacy. Splits traders into commercial, non-commercial and non-reportable. It has the longest history, which makes it the best choice when you want to compare today’s positioning with decades of past data.
- Disaggregated. Splits physical commodity markets into producers/merchants, swap dealers, managed money and other reportables. This is the most useful format for metals, energy and agriculture.
- Traders in Financial Futures (TFF). Splits financial markets into dealers, asset managers, leveraged funds and others. Use it for currencies, interest rates and stock index futures.
- Supplemental. Adds a separate “index trader” category for selected agricultural markets, which helps separate long-only commodity index funds from other speculators in grains and livestock.
Legacy, disaggregated and TFF reports offer futures-only and futures-and-options-combined versions. The supplemental report covers combined positions for selected agricultural contracts. The combined version converts options into futures-equivalent positions, which gives a fuller picture in markets where options are heavily used, such as crude oil and gold.
How to read the Commitments of Traders report categories
For commodities, the disaggregated report is usually the most useful. Its main groups are:
- Producers, merchants, processors and users. Businesses that handle the physical commodity, such as miners, farmers, refiners and food companies. They mainly use futures to hedge price risk, so their positions tend to mirror their physical business rather than a view on price.
- Swap dealers. Firms that use futures to manage risk from swap deals with their clients. Their clients may be hedgers or speculators, so this group is a mix.
- Managed money. Professional money managers, including commodity trading advisors and hedge funds. This group is often watched as a gauge of speculative positioning because it trades for profit rather than to hedge physical goods.
- Other reportables. Large traders who don’t fit the other groups.
- Non-reportable positions. The leftover open interest from smaller traders below the reporting threshold.
The CFTC classifies traders based on the predominant business purpose they report on their registration forms, and it notes that a trader’s category may not reflect every position they hold. A large grain merchant, for example, is classified as a commercial even if some of its trades are speculative.
What the numbers show
For each group, the report lists long positions, short positions, spreading positions and the change from the previous week. It also shows total open interest, the number of contracts outstanding, and the number of traders in each category.
Traders often calculate a group’s net position (longs minus shorts) and track it over time. For example, if managed money’s net long position in a market has grown for several weeks, speculators as a group have been adding bullish bets.
A worked example: reading one row
Suppose the disaggregated futures-only report for a metals market shows, in round numbers, managed money long 150,000 contracts and short 50,000, with the longs up 10,000 on the week and the shorts down 5,000. Here is how to turn that into something useful:
- Net position. 150,000 minus 50,000 is a net long of 100,000 contracts.
- Weekly change. Longs up 10,000 and shorts down 5,000 means the net long grew by 15,000 contracts. Both halves of the move point the same way: funds added longs and covered shorts.
- Share of open interest. If total open interest is 500,000, managed money’s net long is 20 per cent of the market. Express positions this way so you can compare across years, when open interest may have been very different.
- Historical context. Compare today’s net position to its range over the past one to three years. A reading near the top means that this group’s net position is high relative to the period you selected. It does not establish whether the position will reverse.
- Check the other side. Someone is on the other side of every contract. If producers’ net short also grew, that is consistent with additional hedging, but the aggregate report alone cannot tell you the purpose of each trade.
How traders use the COT report
- Context, not timing. Positioning helps explain why a market has moved and how crowded a trade may be. It rarely tells you when the move will end.
- Extremes. Some traders look for unusually large net positions compared with history, on the view that crowded trades can reverse sharply when the last buyer is in. This is a judgment call, not a rule, and crowded trades can get more crowded.
- Hedger behaviour. Changes in producer and merchant positions can reflect how businesses are managing price risk. Heavy producer selling at a high price can indicate that miners or farmers find that price attractive enough to lock in.
- Confirming a story. If a market rallied on reports of fund buying, compare long and short changes over the same reporting period. This can support or weaken that interpretation, but cannot prove what caused the price move.
Where to find the data and how to work with it
The CFTC posts the current reports as web pages and text files, along with historical compressed files going back decades for each format. A practical routine for a weekly reader:
- Download the historical file once for the format you use, open it in a spreadsheet and keep only the markets you follow.
- Add the new weekly rows each Friday evening or over the weekend.
- Keep three columns per group: net position, weekly change and net position as a share of open interest.
- Chart net positioning against price for the same dates. The relationship, or lack of it, is far more informative than any single week.
Many charting platforms and brokers also plot COT data for you. Check that the source matches the CFTC format you expect, because some blend legacy and disaggregated categories.
Common mistakes with the Commitments of Traders report
- Treating it as a signal. The CFTC itself doesn’t interpret the data. Large positions can stay large for a long time.
- Ignoring the lag. Tuesday’s data arrives on Friday. A big move midweek is not in the numbers.
- Misreading hedgers. A large short position from producers often reflects hedging of physical supply, not a bet that prices will fall.
- Comparing different report types. Legacy and disaggregated categories aren’t interchangeable. “Commercial” in the legacy report includes swap dealers; “producer/merchant” in the disaggregated report does not.
- Reading raw contract counts across years. Open interest grows and shrinks. A 100,000-contract net long means something different in a market twice the size it used to be.
- Forgetting spreads. Some categories report offsetting long and short positions separately as spreading. These positions can carry relative-price risk even when their net contract count is small.
The COT report pairs well with an understanding of the futures curve. See our guide to crude oil trading basics for how positioning fits into a wider view of a market.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Commitments of Traders report free?
Yes. The CFTC publishes current and historical COT data on its website at no cost.
Does the COT report show individual traders’ positions?
No. It shows aggregate positions by category. The CFTC does not publish how individual traders are classified or what any single firm holds.
Which markets are covered?
U.S. futures and options markets where enough traders hold positions above the CFTC’s reporting levels, including major metals, energy, agriculture and financial contracts. Use the CFTC’s published market list to check coverage rather than assuming every commodity exchange is included.
Which report should a beginner start with?
For physical commodities, start with the disaggregated futures-and-options-combined report and focus on the managed money and producer/merchant rows. Once you are comfortable, add the legacy report for long-run comparisons.
Conclusion
The Commitments of Traders report tells you who was positioned where as of last Tuesday. Read correctly, as net positions set against history and open interest, it adds genuine context to price moves and shows whether a trade is crowded. Read as a buy or sell signal, it will disappoint. Use it alongside the futures curve, inventories and the news flow for the market you follow, and treat every interpretation, including your own, with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Trading commodities involves risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This article is for education only and is not financial advice.
