What the COT report is
The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It lists the open positions of traders in US futures markets — currencies, gold, oil, stock indices, Bitcoin and more — as of Tuesday, and comes out on Friday afternoon US time (Friday evening in Europe). It’s free and has been published for decades.
Forex is traded over the counter, so nobody sees the whole spot market. Currency futures on the CME are the closest public view of how large traders bet on the euro, yen or pound.
Who is in the report
- Commercials — companies hedging real business exposure: exporters, importers, banks, producers. They often trade against the trend on purpose.
- Non-commercials — large speculators such as hedge funds and commodity trading advisers. This is the group most traders follow, and the one Trade Governor shows.
- Non-reportable — everyone below the reporting threshold, mostly smaller traders.
The numbers that matter
Net position
Longs minus shorts of the speculators. A positive number means they are net long the market, a negative one net short.
Weekly change
How much the net position moved since last week. Absolute positions can stay stretched for months; the change shows whether money is still flowing in or starting to leave.
COT index
Where today’s net position sits between its lowest (low) and highest (high) value over a period, on a 0–100 scale:
It compares a market with its own history, which is what makes a yen and a gold reading comparable. A 6-month index reacts faster; a 3-year index shows long-term extremes.
Reading a currency pair
A pair has two sides, so look at both. Example from the report of 13 October 2026:
| EURUSD | Net position | Week over week | COT index (1Y) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | −137,573 contracts | −38,241 | 0 |
| USD | +$44.9B | +$9.3B | 91 |
Speculators were at their most short on the euro in a year and still selling, while their dollar position sat near the top of its range. Positioning favoured the dollar over the euro.
The dollar has no currency future of its own. The ICE Dollar Index future is small and mostly a mirror of the euro, so Trade Governor builds the USD side from all seven currency futures (EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD), valued in US dollars at ECB rates: a short in any of them counts as long USD.
How traders use it
As a filter, not an entry signal
Find the trade on your chart as usual. COT tells you whether it goes with the large speculators or against them — useful context for a swing trade, irrelevant for a five-minute scalp.
With the trend
Strong, persistent weekly changes in one direction confirm a trend: the money behind the move is still coming in.
Against the crowd at extremes
When the index sits at 0 or 100, one side is crowded. That alone isn’t a reversal signal — extremes can last for weeks — but it’s a reason not to join the crowded side late, to take profits sooner, and to watch for a price break that confirms a turn.
Divergences
Price makes a new low while speculators reduce their shorts: the selling is running out of fuel. Changes often say more than levels.
Limits to keep in mind
- It’s late. Positions are from Tuesday and published on Friday, so they’re 3–10 days old when you read them.
- It’s futures, not spot. A good proxy for currencies and gold, but not the whole market.
- It’s weekly. Use it for swing and position trades, not intraday timing.
- It’s positioning, not advice. Combine it with your own analysis and risk rules.
See it next to your chart
See this week’s COT report for all markets. Trade Governor also shows the latest COT reading for the pair on your TradingView chart, right in the order panel, and full charts with 6-month, 1-year and 3-year COT index in the COT section of the app. Free during the beta.