Commitments of Traders Report [Advanced]This indicator displays the Commitment of Traders (COT) report data in a clear, table format similar to an Excel spreadsheet, with additional functionalities to analyze open interest and position changes. The COT report, published weekly by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), provides valuable insights into market sentiment by revealing the positioning of various trader categories.
Display:
Release Date: When the data was released.
Open Interest: Shows the total number of open contracts for the underlying instrument held by selected trader category.
Net Contracts: Shows the difference between long and short positions for selected trader category.
Long/Short OI: Displays the long and short positions held by selected trader category.
Change in Long/Short OI: Displays the change in long and short positions since the previous reporting period. This can highlight buying or selling pressure.
Long & Short Percentage: Displays the percentage of total long and short positions held by each category.
Trader Categories (Configurable)
Commercials: Hedgers who use futures contracts to manage risk associated with their underlying business (e.g., producers, consumers).
Non-Commercials (Large Speculators): Speculative traders with large positions who aim to profit from price movements (e.g., hedge funds, investment banks).
Non-Reportable (Small Speculators/Retail Traders): Smaller traders with positions below the CFTC reporting thresholds.
CFTC Code: If the indicator fails to retrieve data, you can manually enter the CFTC code for the specific instrument. The code for instrument can be found on CFTC's website.
Using the Indicator Effectively
Market Sentiment Gauge: Analyze the positioning of each trader category to gauge overall market sentiment.
High net longs by commercials might indicate a bullish outlook, while high net shorts could suggest bearish sentiment.
Changes in open interest and long/short positions can provide additional insights into buying and selling pressure.
Trend Confirmation: Don't rely solely on COT data for trade signals. Use it alongside price action and other technical indicators for confirmation.
Identify Potential Turning Points: Extreme readings in COT data, combined with significant changes in open interest or positioning, might precede trend reversals, but exercise caution and combine with other analysis tools.
Disclaimer
Remember, the COT report is just one piece of the puzzle. It should not be used for making isolated trading decisions. Consider incorporating it into a comprehensive trading strategy that factors in other technical and fundamental analysis.
Credit
A big shoutout to Nick from Transparent FX ! His expertise and thoughtful analysis have been a major inspiration in developing this COT Report indicator. To know more about this indicator and how to use it, be sure to check out his work.
Commitmentsoftraders
COT Report IndicatorA COT Report Indicator that shows the Data for both currencies (base- and quotecurrency). It works in the forex market and on the Bitcoin Chart.
The table shows the Net-Contracts, Long and Short Percentage of the latest report. The line chart shows if the Commercials, Institutionals and Retail Traders are more long biased (value above 50) or more short biased (value below 50).
The COT Report is only published weekly. This should not be used as an entry indicator, but can help to find market bottoms/top and the trend of the market.
Commitment of Traders: Legacy Metrics█ OVERVIEW
This indicator displays the Commitment of Traders (COT) legacy data for futures markets.
█ CONCEPTS
Commitment of Traders (COT) data is tallied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , a US federal agency that oversees the trading of derivative markets such as futures in the US. It is weekly data that provides traders with information about open interest for an asset. The CFTC oversees derivative markets traded on different exchanges, so COT data is available for assets that can be traded on CBOT, CME, NYMEX, COMEX, and ICEUS.
A detailed description of the COT report can be found on the CFTC's website .
COT data is separated into three notable reports: Legacy, Disaggregated, and Financial. This indicator presents data from the legacy report, which is broken down by exchange. Legacy reports break down the reportable open interest positions into two classifications: non-commercial and commercial traders.
Our other COT indicators are:
• Commitment of Traders: Disaggregated Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Financial Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Total
█ HOW TO USE IT
Load the indicator on an active chart (see here if you don't know how).
By default, the indicator uses the chart's symbol to derive the COT data it displays. You can also specify a CFTC code in the "CFTC code" field of the script's inputs to display COT data from a symbol different than the chart's.
The rest of this section documents the script's input fields.
Metric
Each metric represents a different column of the Commitment of Traders report. Details are available in the explanatory notes on the CFTC's website .
Here is a summary of the metrics:
• "Open Interest" is the total of all futures and/or option contracts entered into and not yet offset by a transaction, by delivery, by exercise, etc.
The aggregate of all long open interest is equal to the aggregate of all short open interest.
• "Traders Total" is the number of all unique reportable traders, regardless of the trading direction.
• "Traders Total Reportable/Traders Noncommercial/Traders Commercial" are the quantities of traders reported to hold any position with the specified direction.
All of a trader's reported futures positions in a commodity are classified as commercial if the trader uses futures contracts in that particular commodity for hedging.
To determine the total number of reportable traders in a market, a trader is counted only once, whether or not the trader appears in more than one category.
• "Total Reportable/Noncommercial/Commercial Positions" are all positions held by all reportable/non-commercial/commercial traders.
• "Non-reportable Positions" is derived by subtracting total long and short "Reportable Positions" from the total open interest.
Accordingly, the number of traders involved and the commercial/non-commercial classification of each trader are unknown.
• "Concentration Gross/Net LT 4/8 TDR" is the percentage of open interest held by 4/8 of the largest traders, by gross/net positions,
without regard to whether they are classified as commercial or non-commercial. The Net position ratios are computed after offsetting each trader’s equal long and short positions.
A reportable trader with relatively large, balanced long and short positions in a single market, therefore,
may be among the four and eight largest traders in both the gross long and gross short categories, but will probably not be included among the four and eight largest traders on a net basis.
Direction
Each metric is available for a particular set of directions. Valid directions for each metric are specified with its name in the "Metric" field's dropdown menu.
Type
Possible values are: All, Old, Other. When commodities have a well-defined marketing season or crop year (e.g. Wheat or Lean Hogs futures), this determines how the data is aggregated. Detailed explanation can be found in the "Old and Other Futures" section of the CTFC Explanatory Notes linked above. The "Major Markets for Which the COT Data Is Shown by Crop Year" table in the Explanatory Notes specifies the commodities that this distinction applies to; selecting "Old" for any of the commodities not in that list will return the same data as in "All", while selecting "Other" will return 0.
COT Selection Mode
This field's value determines how the script determines which COT data to return from the chart's symbol:
- "Root" uses the root of a futures symbol ("ES" for "ESH2020").
- "Base currency" uses the base currency in a forex pair ("EUR" for "EURUSD").
- "Currency" uses the quote currency, i.e., the currency the symbol is traded in ("JPY" for "TSE:9984" or "USDJPY").
- "Auto" tries all modes, in turn.
If no COT data can be found, a runtime error is generated.
Note that if the "CTFC Code" input field contains a code, it will override this input.
Futures/Options
Specifies the type of Commitment of Traders data to display: data concerning only Futures, only Options, or both.
CTFC Code
Instead of letting the script generate the CFTC COT code from the chart and the "COT Selection Mode" input when this field is empty, you can specify an unrelated CFTC COT code here, e.g., 001602 for wheat futures.
Look first. Then leap.
Commitment of Traders: Disaggregated Metrics█ OVERVIEW
This indicator displays the Commitment of Traders (COT) Disaggregated data for futures markets.
█ CONCEPTS
Commitment of Traders (COT) data is tallied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , a US federal agency that oversees the trading of derivative markets such as futures in the US. It is weekly data that provides traders with information about open interest for an asset. The CFTC oversees derivative markets traded on different exchanges, so COT data is available for assets that can be traded on CBOT, CME, NYMEX, COMEX, and ICEUS.
A detailed description of the COT report can be found on the CFTC's website .
COT data is separated into three notable reports: Legacy, Disaggregated, and Financial. This indicator presents data from the Disaggregated report. The disaggregated reports are broken down by agriculture, petroleum and products, natural gas and products, electricity and metals and other physical contracts. The Disaggregated reports break down the reportable open interest positions into four classifications: Producer/Merchant/Processor/User, Swap Dealers, Managed Money, and Other Reportables.
Our other COT indicators are:
• Commitment of Traders: Legacy Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Financial Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Total
█ HOW TO USE IT
Load the indicator on an active chart (see here if you don't know how).
By default, the indicator uses the chart's symbol to derive the COT data it displays. You can also specify a CFTC code in the "CFTC code" field of the script's inputs to display COT data from a symbol different than the chart's.
The rest of this section documents the script's input fields.
Metric
Each metric represents a different column of the Commitment of Traders report. Details are available in the explanatory notes on the CFTC's website .
Here is a summary of the metrics:
• "Open Interest" is the total of all futures and/or option contracts entered into and not yet offset by a transaction, by delivery, by exercise, etc.
The aggregate of all long open interest is equal to the aggregate of all short open interest.
• "Traders Total" is the quantity of all unique reportable traders, regardless of the trading direction.
• "Traders Producer Merchant" is the number of traders classified as a "producer/merchant/processor/user" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
A "producer/merchant/processor/user" is an entity that predominantly engages in the production, processing, packing or handling of a physical commodity and
uses the futures markets to manage or hedge risks associated with those activities.
• "Traders Swap" is the number of traders classified as "swap dealers" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
A "swap dealer" is an entity that deals primarily in swaps for a commodity and uses the futures markets to manage or hedge the risk associated with those swaps transactions.
The swap dealer’s counterparties may be speculative traders, like hedge funds, or traditional commercial clients that are managing risk arising from their dealings in the physical commodity.
• "Traders Managed Money" is the number of traders classified as "money managers" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
A "money manager" is a registered trader that is engaged in managing and conducting organized futures trading on behalf of clients.
• "Traders Other Reportable" is the number of reportable traders that are not placed in any of the three categories specified above.
• "Traders Total Reportable" is the number of traders reported holding any position with the specified direction.
To determine the total number of reportable traders in a market, a trader is counted only once whether or not the trader appears in more than one category.
As a result, the sum of the numbers of traders in each separate category typically exceeds the total number of reportable traders.
• "Producer Merchant/Swap/Managed Money/Total Reportable/Other Reportable Positions" is all positions held by the traders of the specified category.
• "Nonreportable Positions" is the long and short open interest derived by subtracting the total long and short reportable positions from the total open interest.
Accordingly, the number of traders involved and the classification of each trader are unknown.
• "Concentration Gross/Net LE 4/8 TDR" is the percentage of open interest held by 4/8 of the largest traders (entities), by Gross/Net positions, without regard to how they are classified.
The Net position ratios are computed after offsetting each trader’s equal long and short positions.
A reportable trader with relatively large, balanced long and short positions in a single market,
therefore, may be among the four and eight largest traders in both the gross long and gross short categories,
but will probably not be included among the four and eight largest traders on a net basis.
Direction
Each metric is available for a particular set of directions. Valid directions for each metric are specified with its name in the "Metric" field's dropdown menu.
Type
Possible values are: All, Old, Other. When commodities have a well-defined marketing season or crop year (e.g. Wheat or Lean Hogs futures), this determines how the data is aggregated. Detailed explanation can be found in the "Old and Other Futures" section of the CTFC Explanatory Notes linked above. The "Major Markets for Which the COT Data Is Shown by Crop Year" table in the Explanatory Notes specifies the commodities that this distinction applies to; selecting "Old" for any of the commodities not in that list will return the same data as in "All", while selecting "Other" will return 0.
Futures/Options
Specifies the type of Commitment of Traders data to display: data concerning only Futures, only Options, or both.
CTFC Code
Instead of letting the script generate the CFTC COT code from the chart and the "COT Selection Mode" input when this field is empty, you can specify an unrelated CFTC COT code here, e.g., 001602 for wheat futures.
Look first. Then leap.
Commitment of Traders: Financial Metrics█ OVERVIEW
This indicator displays the Commitment of Traders (COT) financial data for futures markets.
█ CONCEPTS
Commitment of Traders (COT) data is tallied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , a US federal agency that oversees the trading of derivative markets such as futures in the US. It is weekly data that provides traders with information about open interest for an asset. The CFTC oversees derivative markets traded on different exchanges, so COT data is available for assets that can be traded on CBOT, CME, NYMEX, COMEX, and ICEUS.
A detailed description of the COT report can be found on the CFTC's website .
COT data is separated into three notable reports: Legacy, Disaggregated, and Financial. This indicator presents data from the COT Financial (Traders in Financial Futures) report. The Financial report includes financial contracts, such as currencies, US Treasury securities, Eurodollars, stocks, VIX and Bloomberg commodity index. As such, the TFF data is limited to financial-related tickers. The TFF report breaks down the reportable open interest positions into four classifications: Dealer/Intermediary, Asset Manager/Institutional, Leveraged Funds, and Other Reportables.
Our other COT indicators are:
• Commitment of Traders: Legacy Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Disaggregated Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Total
█ HOW TO USE IT
Load the indicator on an active chart (see here if you don't know how).
By default, the indicator uses the chart's symbol to derive the COT data it displays. You can also specify a CFTC code in the "CFTC code" field of the script's inputs to display COT data from a symbol different than the chart's.
The rest of this section documents the script's input fields.
Metric
Each metric represents a different column of the Commitment of Traders report. Details are available in the explanatory notes on the CFTC's website .
Here is a summary of the metrics:
• "Open Interest" is the total of all futures and/or option contracts entered into and not yet offset by a transaction, by delivery, by exercise, etc.
The aggregate of all long open interest is equal to the aggregate of all short open interest.
• "Traders Total" is the number of all unique reportable traders, regardless of the trading direction.
• "Traders Dealer" is the number of traders classified as a "Dealer/Intermediary" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
A "producer/merchant/processor/user" is an entity typically described as the “sell side” of the market.
Though they may not predominately sell futures, they do design and sell various financial assets to clients.
They tend to have matched books or offset their risk across markets and clients.
Futures contracts are part of the pricing and balancing of risk associated with the products they sell and their activities.
• "Traders Asset Manager" is the number of traders classified as "Asset Manager/Institutional" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
These are institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, insurance companies,
mutual funds and those portfolio/investment managers whose clients are predominantly institutional.
• "Traders Leveraged Funds" is the number of traders classified as "Leveraged Funds" reported holding any position with the specified direction.
These are typically hedge funds and various types of money managers. The traders may be engaged in managing and
conducting proprietary futures trading and trading on behalf of speculative clients.
• "Traders Other Reportable" is the number of reportable traders that are not placed in any of the three categories specified above.
The traders in this category mostly are using markets to hedge business risk, whether that risk is related to foreign exchange, equities or interest rates.
This category includes corporate treasuries, central banks, smaller banks, mortgage originators, credit unions and any other reportable traders not assigned to the other three categories.
• "Traders Total Reportable" is the number of all traders reported holding any position with the specified direction.
To determine the total number of reportable traders in a market, a trader is counted only once whether or not the trader appears in more than one category.
As a result, the sum of the numbers of traders in each separate category typically exceeds the total number of reportable traders.
• "Dealer/Asset Manager/Leveraged Funds/Total Reportable/Other Reportable Positions -- all positions held by the traders of the specified category.
• "Nonreportable Positions" is the long and short open interest derived by subtracting the total long and short reportable positions from the total open interest.
Accordingly, the number of traders involved and the commercial/non-commercial classification of each trader are unknown.
• "Concentration Gross/Net LT 4/8 TDR" is the percentage of open interest held by 4/8 of the largest traders, by gross/net positions,
without regard to whether they are classified as commercial or non-commercial. The Net position ratios are computed after offsetting each trader’s equal long and short positions.
A reportable trader with relatively large, balanced long and short positions in a single market, therefore,
may be among the four and eight largest traders in both the gross long and gross short categories, but will probably not be included among the four and eight largest traders on a net basis.
Direction
Each metric is available for a particular set of directions. Valid directions for each metric are specified with its name in the "Metric" field's dropdown menu.
COT Selection Mode
This field's value determines how the script determines which COT data to return from the chart's symbol:
- "Root" uses the root of a futures symbol ("ES" for "ESH2020").
- "Base currency" uses the base currency in a forex pair ("EUR" for "EURUSD").
- "Currency" uses the quote currency, i.e., the currency the symbol is traded in ("JPY" for "TSE:9984" or "USDJPY").
- "Auto" tries all modes, in turn.
If no COT data can be found, a runtime error is generated.
Note that if the "CTFC Code" input field contains a code, it will override this input.
Futures/Options
Specifies the type of Commitment of Traders data to display: data concerning only Futures, only Options, or both.
CTFC Code
Instead of letting the script generate the CFTC COT code from the chart and the "COT Selection Mode" input when this field is empty, you can specify an unrelated CFTC COT code here, e.g., 001602 for wheat futures.
Look first. Then leap.
Commitment of Traders: Total█ OVERVIEW
This indicator displays the Commitment of Traders (COT) totals data for futures markets.
█ CONCEPTS
Commitment of Traders (COT) data is tallied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , a US federal agency that oversees the trading of derivative markets such as futures in the US. It is weekly data that provides traders with information about open interest for an asset. The CFTC oversees derivative markets traded on different exchanges, so COT data is available for assets that can be traded on CBOT, CME, NYMEX, COMEX, and ICEUS.
A detailed description of the COT report can be found on the CFTC's website .
COT data is separated into three notable reports: Legacy, Disaggregated, and Financial. This indicator presents specific data from the COT Legacy report. The Total data details the positions held by various traders: Commercial Hedgers (traders registered with CFTC that use futures contracts in that particular commodity for hedging), Large Traders (traders registered with CFTC that do not hedge that particular commodity) and Small Traders (not registered with CFTC).
Our other COT indicators are:
• Commitment of Traders: Legacy Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Disaggregated Metrics
• Commitment of Traders: Financial Metrics
█ HOW TO USE IT
Load the indicator on an active chart (see here if you don't know how).
By default, the indicator uses the chart's symbol to derive the COT data it displays. You can also specify a CFTC code in the "CFTC code" field of the script's inputs to display COT data from a symbol different than the chart's.
The rest of this section documents the script's input fields.
COT Selection Mode
This field's value determines how the script determines which COT data to return from the chart's symbol:
- "Root" uses the root of a futures symbol ("ES" for "ESH2020").
- "Base currency" uses the base currency in a forex pair ("EUR" for "EURUSD").
- "Currency" uses the quote currency, i.e., the currency the symbol is traded in ("JPY" for "TSE:9984" or "USDJPY").
- "Auto" tries all modes, in turn.
If no COT data can be found, a runtime error is generated.
Note that if the "CTFC Code" input field contains a code, it will override this input.
Futures/Options
Specifies the type of Commitment of Traders data to display: data concerning only Futures, only Options, or both.
Display
Determines the direction of the metrics requested from the CTFC report.
CTFC Code
Instead of letting the script generate the CFTC COT code from the chart and the "COT Selection Mode" input when this field is empty, you can specify an unrelated CFTC COT code here, e.g., 001602 for wheat futures.
Look first. Then leap.