COT report data, charted and explained
The COT report is the CFTC’s weekly snapshot of who is positioned where in US futures markets. Meaterm turns the raw Commitments of Traders report into COT data charts and positioning dashboards, so you can see how commercials and large speculators are leaning without wrestling with government CSV files.
What changed in this week’s positioning
- S&P 500: leveraged funds cut longs by 41,902 contracts, to net short 415,909 (−41,902 week over week).
- WTI Crude Oil: managed money cut longs by 25,994 contracts, to net long 53,598 (−25,994 week over week).
- Euro FX: net short 44,261 sits in the bottom 5% of its three-year range.
- Bitcoin (CME): net short 6,852 is more long than 94% of the past three years — the top of its own range.
| Market | Trader group | Net position | WoW change | 3y percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | Leveraged funds | -415,909 | -41,902 | 19% |
| Nasdaq-100 | Leveraged funds | -26,738 | +7,044 | 67% |
| Euro FX | Leveraged funds | -44,261 | -4,996 | 5% |
| Bitcoin (CME) | Leveraged funds | -6,852 | +4 | 94% |
| Gold | Managed money | 110,987 | -9,331 | 32% |
| WTI Crude Oil | Managed money | 53,598 | -25,994 | 17% |
Net position is long minus short, in futures contracts. The percentile is where this week’s net sits within the same contract’s own last three years, so 96% means more long than it has been 96% of that period. Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, published weekly on Friday for positions held the preceding Tuesday. This is positioning data and sentiment context — not a signal, not a recommendation, and not investment advice.
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Create free account →What the COT report is
Every week the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) publishes the Commitments of Traders report — normally on Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET, covering positions held as of the preceding Tuesday. It breaks down open interest in each futures market by trader category: commercials (businesses hedging real exposure), non-commercials (large speculators such as funds) and non-reportables (small traders below the reporting thresholds).
The data is public and free, but it arrives as dense tables. Reading one week in isolation tells you little — the value comes from charting net positioning over months and years, which is exactly the part the raw release doesn’t give you.
How to read a Commitments of Traders report
For each trader group, subtract short contracts from long contracts to get net positioning. Commercials tend to lean against price because they hedge — a producer sells futures as prices rise. Large speculators tend to lean with the trend, since many are momentum-driven funds. Small traders are the residual.
The readings most analysts watch are extremes: when large-speculator net length in a market reaches a multi-year high or low, positioning is stretched and the crowd is heavily committed to one side. That is sentiment context — a description of how one-sided the market has become — not a prediction. Stretched positioning can persist for a long time before anything changes.
What Meaterm does with COT data
Meaterm ingests each CFTC release and turns it into working research views inside the browser-based terminal:
- Positioning dashboards — net positioning by trader group across markets, in one screen.
- Historical COT charts — years of net positioning plotted against price, per market.
- Per-asset drill-down — open a single market and inspect each group’s longs, shorts and net.
- Extremes flagging — readings at the edge of their historical range are highlighted as context.
COT positioning sits next to advanced charting, FRED-backed macro dashboards, the earnings calendar, on-chain crypto analytics and SEC-filing fundamentals — the full list is on the features page. The point is not COT in isolation; it’s reading positioning alongside the macro and price picture in one place.
COT data for FX, metals, energy and indices
Meaterm’s COT coverage spans the major CFTC-reported futures markets traders actually watch:
- FX — currency futures on the euro, yen, pound, franc, Australian and Canadian dollar, commonly read as a proxy for spot-FX sentiment.
- Metals — gold, silver and copper positioning.
- Energy — crude oil and natural gas.
- Equity indices — index futures such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100.
Cross-asset positioning is where COT gets interesting: speculators stretched long a currency while also stretched in a correlated commodity is a very different backdrop than either reading alone. That cross-asset view inside a single trading terminal is the reason COT is a first-class dataset in Meaterm rather than a bolt-on.
Limitations worth knowing
Honest caveats, because COT data is often oversold:
- It lags — Friday’s release shows Tuesday’s positions, a roughly three-day delay. Fast-moving weeks can look stale by publication.
- It’s futures-only — no spot FX, no OTC derivatives, no cash equities. It is a window into one venue, not the whole market.
- It’s context, not a signal — extremes describe crowding; they don’t time reversals, and Meaterm never presents them as trade recommendations.
Meaterm itself is analysis-only: no brokerage, no trade execution, and market data is delayed or end-of-day rather than real-time tick. If you’re weighing that trade-off against a $2,000+/month Bloomberg Terminal or TradingView’s ~$15–240/month charting tiers, the side-by-side comparison lays out exactly what you get per euro. These are research tools, not investment advice.
The weekly report and its archive
- This week’s COT table, free and without an account — the same six markets, with every weekly report since 23 September 2025 on its own permanent page.
- Euro FX positioning, week by week — one contract’s leveraged-fund positioning, the CFTC source row and the arithmetic, so you can check it.
- How Meaterm calculates positioning — the CFTC datasets, trader categories, formulas and thresholds, and what the data cannot tell you.
COT report FAQ
What is the COT report?
The Commitments of Traders report is a weekly breakdown, published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, of who holds open positions in US futures markets. Every trader above a reporting threshold is classified — commercial hedgers, large speculators, and smaller non-reportable accounts — and the report shows how many contracts each group is long and short in each market. It is public data, free at source, and covers currencies, metals, energy, agriculture and equity indices.
How do I read COT data?
Read it as a description of who is on each side, not as a forecast. Look at the net position of each group (long minus short), then at how that net changed from the previous week, then at where it sits against its own history — a net long that is large for one market can be ordinary for another, which is why a percentile against the last three years is more useful than the raw contract count. Commercials tend to sit opposite the speculators because they are hedging physical exposure, so the two groups moving apart is normal rather than a contradiction.
When is the COT report released?
The CFTC publishes the Commitments of Traders report weekly, normally on Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET, showing positions as of the preceding Tuesday. Meaterm updates its COT dashboards after each release.
What do commercials and non-commercials mean in the COT report?
Commercials are businesses hedging real exposure to the underlying market, such as producers or processors. Non-commercials, often called large speculators, are funds and traders positioned for profit rather than hedging. Non-reportables are small traders below the CFTC reporting thresholds.
Is the COT report useful for FX traders?
The CFTC does not report spot FX, but positioning in currency futures — the euro, yen, pound, franc, Australian and Canadian dollar contracts — is widely used as a proxy for FX sentiment, since large speculators in futures often mirror broader currency positioning.
Are COT positioning extremes buy or sell signals?
No. An extreme reading describes how stretched positioning is relative to history — it is sentiment context, not a trade signal. Crowded positioning can stay crowded for long stretches. Meaterm flags extremes as context for your own research; it does not generate trade recommendations or investment advice.
Does Meaterm show real-time COT data?
COT data is inherently weekly: it reflects Tuesday positions published on Friday, so there is a built-in lag of roughly three days. Meaterm charts the data as the CFTC releases it. More broadly, Meaterm market data is delayed or end-of-day — it is a research terminal, not a real-time tick feed.
Is COT data free on Meaterm?
Meaterm has a free tier that requires no credit card, and Pro plans start from €9.99/month. COT positioning sits alongside charting, macro dashboards, on-chain analytics and fundamentals in the same browser-based terminal — see the pricing page for what each plan includes.
See this week’s positioning
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