Choose the CFTC report before choosing a trader group
CFTC publishes four report families. Their categories answer different questions: Legacy Non-commercial is not interchangeable with Disaggregated Managed Money or TFF Leveraged Funds. Keep the report family fixed when comparing dates. The table lists reportable groups; nonreportable positions are reported separately. See the CFTC report definitions.
| Report | Reportable trader groups | Coverage and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy | Commercial and Non-commercial | Broad futures coverage; futures-only or futures-and-options combined. |
| Disaggregated | Producer/Merchant/Processor/User, Swap Dealers, Managed Money, Other Reportables | Physical commodities; futures-only or combined. |
| Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) | Dealer/Intermediary, Asset Manager/Institutional, Leveraged Funds, Other Reportables | Financial futures; futures-only or combined. |
| Supplemental | Commercial, Non-commercial, Index Traders | Selected agricultural markets; combined futures and options. |
Commercial is a classification of a trader's activity in that commodity, not a rating of forecasting skill. Nonreportable positions are the residual after subtracting reportable positions from open interest; their trader types are unknown. Combined reports convert options into futures equivalents using delta, so do not compare them directly with futures-only totals. These distinctions follow the CFTC explanatory notes.
Match the contract, not just the chart label
- Select a provider symbol and date range, then apply the filters. Read the Overview market/exchange name and contract units before examining Positions, Changes, % of OI, Traders, or Concentration.
- Find the matching CFTC contract market code in the official report. Save the code with the exchange, report family, futures-only/combined scope, trader group, and metric. A short symbol alone is not a unique mapping across data providers.
- Treat the COT market total as a different scope from a single expiry or a continuous price chart. A spot FX pair, CFD, or ETF can be a research comparison, but its positions are not measured by that futures report.
- Cross-check one date's open interest and category positions with the CFTC Public Reporting Environment. If the match is ambiguous or the series is missing, stop the comparison rather than substituting zero.
Align COT data to when it became available
The usual release is Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time for the preceding Tuesday's positions. Holidays can shift the date. Consult the CFTC release schedule and actual release notices; provider delivery can add further delay.
A timing example with hypothetical data
Suppose Tuesday's snapshot shows 120,000 long and 80,000 short non-commercial contracts, a net of +40,000. The previous published net was +35,000, so the change is +5,000 contracts. Assume the new report is released Friday at 15:30 ET and your feed receives it at 15:35 ET.
A decision at Friday 15:32 must still use +35,000. A decision after 15:35 may use +40,000 if the strategy's bar and execution rules permit it. Backfilling +40,000 onto Tuesday gives the strategy information it could not have known. On daily bars, define whether decisions occur at the close or next open; a date label alone cannot settle availability within the day.
For each observation retain the position date, actual release time, and first usable time in your feed. Carry the previous known value until the new one is available. Record the time zone and distinguish scheduled release from observed delivery. This is a research rule for avoiding lookahead bias; the report table does not supply an availability history.
Use a COT indicator on TradingView
TradingView publishes official Legacy, Disaggregated, Financial, and Total COT indicators. Its symbol search uses COT: for Legacy, COT2: for Disaggregated, and COT3: for TFF, as described in its COT data announcement. Start with the TradingView COT guide and its links to the official indicators. Verify the selected CFTC code, report, trader category, metric, and options setting against your source.
Compare one known report value and its first visible chart bar before testing a strategy. Do not assume a chart's weekly timestamp proves point-in-time availability. A custom script still depends on the series TradingView provides; changing a chart timeframe cannot create intraday COT updates.
Weekly net changes can reflect offsetting trades and classification changes. An extreme position does not establish an entry price or a reversal date. Use this information for research, not as investment advice or a promise of returns. For a separate view of the available analysis records, see the COT analysis tool.
Sources checked October 17, 2026. Report definitions come from the CFTC; TradingView access instructions come from TradingView. The numerical example is illustrative, not a market observation.