COT Positioning
COT Positioning shows how the three main groups of traders in the Commitments of Traders (COT) report are positioned in the futures market behind your chart: Large Speculators, Commercials and Retail Traders.
It's an informational tool. It shows positioning clearly and honestly, without buy or sell signals.
WHAT IS THE COT REPORT?
The Commitments of Traders report is published by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), the US regulator for futures markets. It shows how traders are positioned in futures traded on US exchanges such as the CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX.
- History: the reports date back to 1924. Regular monthly reports started in 1962 and they have been weekly since 2000.
- Timing: positions are counted at the close on Tuesday and published on Friday at 15:30 New York time. The gap gives the CFTC time to collect and check the data reported by brokers.
- Coverage: a market is included when 20 or more large traders hold positions above the CFTC's reporting levels. These large traders usually make up 70–90% of all open positions in a market.
THE THREE GROUPS
This indicator uses the CFTC's Legacy report, which splits traders into three groups:
- Commercials: traders who use futures to hedge a business risk. In commodities these are producers, processors and users of the commodity. In currency and index futures they include banks and dealers hedging their business.
- Large Speculators (non-commercials): large traders who are not hedging, such as hedge funds and trend-following funds. They trade to profit from price moves and are the group most traders follow.
- Retail Traders (non-reportable): all traders too small to be reported individually. The CFTC does not know who they are, so this group is a rough stand-in for smaller traders, not an exact count of retail.
HOW TRADERS USE THE COT REPORT
- Confirming a bias. Research on currency futures has found that weekly changes in speculators' positions move together with exchange rates, and that speculators' positions tend to signal that the current move continues. Many traders use this as confirmation: if Large Speculators are building longs in the direction of their own bias, it supports the idea.
- Watching extremes. When a group's position reaches the highest or lowest level in several years, the trade may be crowded, with fewer traders left to push it further. Some studies found that peaks and troughs in positioning were useful signals, while others found extremes are not systematically followed by reversals. Extremes are best treated as a warning, not a signal on their own.
- Commercials vs Large Speculators. Commercials usually take the opposite side to speculators. Research on currency futures found that hedgers' positions tend to forecast price reversals, so when the two groups are stretched to opposite extremes, many traders see it as a sign that a trend may be maturing.
- Context, not timing. Studies by central banks found that positioning mostly follows price rather than leading it, and the data is already three days old when published. COT works best as background context for a bias, alongside price action and fundamentals, not as an entry signal.
HOW THIS INDICATOR WORKS
- Honest timing. Each report is shown only from its official release (the first Friday after the report date, 15:30 New York time), not from the Tuesday the positions were counted. Many COT indicators place each report on its Tuesday, which makes history look as if the data was known three days earlier than it was. Here, history shows only what traders could actually have known at the time.
- Data checks. Every report is checked before it's shown: all parts must come from the same report, no values can be negative, and total longs and shorts must balance with open interest.
- Catches up on delays. If the CFTC or TradingView publishes reports late, up to four missed reports are filled in automatically, in the correct order.
- Automatic market detection. The indicator finds the right COT report for the chart you open:
– Forex: EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD, MXN, BRL and ZAR futures, plus the US Dollar Index. On pairs quoted the other way round (e.g. USD/JPY), longs and shorts are swapped to match the chart. On crosses (e.g. GBP/JPY), the first currency's positioning against the US dollar is shown.
– Indices: S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones (consolidated reports, which include the smaller contracts), Russell 2000, Nikkei 225 and VIX.
– Commodities: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, WTI and Brent crude, natural gas, gasoline, heating oil, corn, wheat, soybeans, sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton.
– Crypto: CME Bitcoin and Ether futures.
It works on futures charts and on the common spot and CFD symbols for these markets.
- Old-data warning. If a market has had no new report for about 2½ weeks (for example because it dropped below the CFTC's 20-trader limit), the table shows a warning.
WHAT YOU SEE
- Three lines, one per group, in either view:
– NET: long minus short contracts.
– COT Index: where the current NET sits between its lowest (0) and highest (100) level over the chosen period (156 weekly reports, about 3 years, by default).
- A table with each group's NET position, Long %, Short % and Δ NET (the change since the previous week's report), plus the market name and the release date of the report shown.
SETTINGS
- Include options: off uses the futures-only report; on uses the futures and options combined report.
- Plot: NET or COT Index.
- COT Index length (weekly reports): the look-back period for the COT Index.
- Labels at line end: show the group names next to the lines.
- Groups: show or hide each group and choose its colour.
- Table: show or hide it, its position and its text size.
NOTES
- COT is a weekly report, so the indicator works on intraday, daily and weekly charts, not on monthly charts.
- COT data only exists for US futures markets. On spot and CFD charts the matching futures report is used. For crypto, only CME futures are covered, not crypto exchanges.
- In rare weeks when a US holiday or government shutdown delays the release, history may show that report a little earlier than it was actually published.
- This is an analysis tool, not a buy or sell signal. Use it alongside your own analysis and risk management.
It's an informational tool. It shows positioning clearly and honestly, without buy or sell signals.
WHAT IS THE COT REPORT?
The Commitments of Traders report is published by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), the US regulator for futures markets. It shows how traders are positioned in futures traded on US exchanges such as the CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX.
- History: the reports date back to 1924. Regular monthly reports started in 1962 and they have been weekly since 2000.
- Timing: positions are counted at the close on Tuesday and published on Friday at 15:30 New York time. The gap gives the CFTC time to collect and check the data reported by brokers.
- Coverage: a market is included when 20 or more large traders hold positions above the CFTC's reporting levels. These large traders usually make up 70–90% of all open positions in a market.
THE THREE GROUPS
This indicator uses the CFTC's Legacy report, which splits traders into three groups:
- Commercials: traders who use futures to hedge a business risk. In commodities these are producers, processors and users of the commodity. In currency and index futures they include banks and dealers hedging their business.
- Large Speculators (non-commercials): large traders who are not hedging, such as hedge funds and trend-following funds. They trade to profit from price moves and are the group most traders follow.
- Retail Traders (non-reportable): all traders too small to be reported individually. The CFTC does not know who they are, so this group is a rough stand-in for smaller traders, not an exact count of retail.
HOW TRADERS USE THE COT REPORT
- Confirming a bias. Research on currency futures has found that weekly changes in speculators' positions move together with exchange rates, and that speculators' positions tend to signal that the current move continues. Many traders use this as confirmation: if Large Speculators are building longs in the direction of their own bias, it supports the idea.
- Watching extremes. When a group's position reaches the highest or lowest level in several years, the trade may be crowded, with fewer traders left to push it further. Some studies found that peaks and troughs in positioning were useful signals, while others found extremes are not systematically followed by reversals. Extremes are best treated as a warning, not a signal on their own.
- Commercials vs Large Speculators. Commercials usually take the opposite side to speculators. Research on currency futures found that hedgers' positions tend to forecast price reversals, so when the two groups are stretched to opposite extremes, many traders see it as a sign that a trend may be maturing.
- Context, not timing. Studies by central banks found that positioning mostly follows price rather than leading it, and the data is already three days old when published. COT works best as background context for a bias, alongside price action and fundamentals, not as an entry signal.
HOW THIS INDICATOR WORKS
- Honest timing. Each report is shown only from its official release (the first Friday after the report date, 15:30 New York time), not from the Tuesday the positions were counted. Many COT indicators place each report on its Tuesday, which makes history look as if the data was known three days earlier than it was. Here, history shows only what traders could actually have known at the time.
- Data checks. Every report is checked before it's shown: all parts must come from the same report, no values can be negative, and total longs and shorts must balance with open interest.
- Catches up on delays. If the CFTC or TradingView publishes reports late, up to four missed reports are filled in automatically, in the correct order.
- Automatic market detection. The indicator finds the right COT report for the chart you open:
– Forex: EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD, MXN, BRL and ZAR futures, plus the US Dollar Index. On pairs quoted the other way round (e.g. USD/JPY), longs and shorts are swapped to match the chart. On crosses (e.g. GBP/JPY), the first currency's positioning against the US dollar is shown.
– Indices: S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones (consolidated reports, which include the smaller contracts), Russell 2000, Nikkei 225 and VIX.
– Commodities: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, WTI and Brent crude, natural gas, gasoline, heating oil, corn, wheat, soybeans, sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton.
– Crypto: CME Bitcoin and Ether futures.
It works on futures charts and on the common spot and CFD symbols for these markets.
- Old-data warning. If a market has had no new report for about 2½ weeks (for example because it dropped below the CFTC's 20-trader limit), the table shows a warning.
WHAT YOU SEE
- Three lines, one per group, in either view:
– NET: long minus short contracts.
– COT Index: where the current NET sits between its lowest (0) and highest (100) level over the chosen period (156 weekly reports, about 3 years, by default).
- A table with each group's NET position, Long %, Short % and Δ NET (the change since the previous week's report), plus the market name and the release date of the report shown.
SETTINGS
- Include options: off uses the futures-only report; on uses the futures and options combined report.
- Plot: NET or COT Index.
- COT Index length (weekly reports): the look-back period for the COT Index.
- Labels at line end: show the group names next to the lines.
- Groups: show or hide each group and choose its colour.
- Table: show or hide it, its position and its text size.
NOTES
- COT is a weekly report, so the indicator works on intraday, daily and weekly charts, not on monthly charts.
- COT data only exists for US futures markets. On spot and CFD charts the matching futures report is used. For crypto, only CME futures are covered, not crypto exchanges.
- In rare weeks when a US holiday or government shutdown delays the release, history may show that report a little earlier than it was actually published.
- This is an analysis tool, not a buy or sell signal. Use it alongside your own analysis and risk management.
Clause de non-responsabilité
Les informations et publications ne sont pas destinées à être, et ne constituent pas, des conseils ou recommandations financiers, d'investissement, de trading ou autres fournis ou approuvés par TradingView. Pour en savoir plus, consultez les Conditions d'utilisation.
Clause de non-responsabilité
Les informations et publications ne sont pas destinées à être, et ne constituent pas, des conseils ou recommandations financiers, d'investissement, de trading ou autres fournis ou approuvés par TradingView. Pour en savoir plus, consultez les Conditions d'utilisation.