Commitments of Traders Historical Reports
The COT data is widely used in technical and fundamental analysis to gain insights into potential market shifts, reversals, or ongoing trends. Whether you are backtesting strategies or studying institutional behavior, this page offers a comprehensive archive of trader positioning history in an easy-to-navigate format.
Traders can browse through weekly reports dating back to 2006 to see how different market participants, such as commercial hedgers and large speculators, were positioned in futures markets. This historical archive is a valuable tool for analyzing long-term market sentiment and trading patterns.
What is the Commitments of Traders (COT) report?
The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is a weekly publication released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It provides a breakdown of open interest in U.S. futures markets, showing how different groups of traders are positioned. These groups typically include:
- Commercials (hedgers): businesses and institutions that use futures to hedge against price fluctuations, such as oil companies or agricultural producers.
- Non-commercials (large speculators): investment funds and professional traders who speculate on price movements.
- Non-reportable positions (small traders): retail and smaller participants.
By analyzing these reports, traders gain a clearer picture of overall market sentiment and the balance between buyers and sellers.
What types of markets are included in the COT Historical View?
The COT reports cover a wide range of U.S. futures markets. This includes:
- Commodities such as gold, silver, crude oil, copper, aluminium, palladium, and platinum.
- Currencies such as the Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar, and others.
This broad coverage makes the Historical View a valuable tool not only for Forex traders but also for commodity, equity, and macroeconomic analysts.
How do traders use the COT Historical View in practice?
Traders and analysts use the Historical View in different ways depending on their trading style:
- Trend confirmation: If large speculators are steadily increasing long positions, it may confirm a bullish trend.
- Contrarian signals: When positioning becomes extreme, such as record-high long positions, it may signal an upcoming reversal.
- Hedging insights: Commercial traders often take the opposite side of speculators, which can reveal hedging demand and real-world business expectations.
- Backtesting: Historical data allows traders to test strategies and see how markets reacted to similar positioning levels in the past.
In essence, the Historical View provides context that helps traders avoid relying only on short-term signals.
How often is the COT report released, and when is the Historical View updated?
The COT report is released by the CFTC every Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, reflecting data from the previous Tuesday’s market close. This three-day lag is standard and applies to all COT data. The Historical View on Myfxbook updates accordingly, archiving each new weekly report so traders can access it anytime.
Can beginners benefit from the Historical View, or is it mainly for professionals?
Beginners can benefit from studying the Historical View. At first, the data may appear technical, but with practice, new traders can learn how positioning influences market behavior. It is often easier for beginners to start by comparing large shifts in positions rather than analyzing every number in detail. Professionals, on the other hand, tend to use the Historical View in more advanced ways, such as combining it with technical analysis, sentiment indicators, or macroeconomic data to refine their strategies.
