COT Report Explained: How Traders Use Positioning Data with MRKT

Table of Content

1. Introduction
2. What Is the COT Report?
3. Why the COT Report Matters
4. How to Read COT Data
5. MRKT’s COT dashboard: what’s different?
6. MRKT’s COT Dashboard Features
7. How to Use COT Data in Your Trading
8. Conclusion

Introduction

Every week, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) releases the Commitments of Traders (COT) report, a trove of data showing how different market participants are positioned in the futures markets. Hedge funds, commercial hedgers (producers and manufacturers) and smaller retail traders all file their long and short positions. When aggregated, the report becomes one of the few public windows into who is long, who is short and by how much. Professional traders use it to gauge market sentiment, spot contrarian opportunities and confirm macro trends.

Yet reading the raw COT tables can be tedious; there are dozens of markets and thousands of numbers. MRKT’s COT Report condenses the data into an intuitive dashboard, helping traders instantly see where the smart money is positioned. In this guide you’ll learn what the COT report is, why it matters, how MRKT visualises it, and how to use these insights in your trading.

What is the COT report?

The COT report lists the number of long and short futures contracts held by three categories of traders:

• Commercial (hedgers), companies and producers hedging future production or consumption. They tend to take the opposite side of speculators.
• Non‑commercial (large speculators), hedge funds and commodity trading advisors seeking profits. Their net positioning often reflects market sentiment.
• Non‑reportable (retail/other), smaller traders whose positions are below the reporting threshold.

For each contract, the report shows the current week’s long and short totals and the changes from the previous week. Traders typically subtract total shorts from total longs to compute a net position. A positive net position means speculators are predominantly long (bullish), while a negative net position signals net shorts (bearish). Many analysts also track the percentage of contracts on the long side (long%) and the short side (short%) to gauge the crowding of a trade.

Why the COT report matters

1. Sentiment and positioning - The COT report reveals how aggressively different groups are positioned. Extreme net long or net short positions often precede market reversals as traders eventually have to cover positions.
2. Confirmation of trends - A rising market with increasing net longs suggests genuine momentum. Conversely, a rally with falling net longs may be a short‑squeeze that could fade quickly.
3. Contrarian indicator - When hedge funds hold their largest net long in years, it can signal overconfidence. Contrarians look for points where the crowd is overextended to fade the consensus.
4. Macro insight - Futures cover currencies, bonds, energy, metals, grains, stock indices and softs. COT data therefore provides a bird’s‑eye view of risk appetite across asset classes.

How to read COT data

Two metrics are especially useful:

• Long % vs Short %, the share of open interest held long vs short. A market with 80 % long positions is heavily bullish, while 80 % short suggests bearishness.
• Net position (Net Pos), total long contracts minus total shorts. Large positive values show strong long exposure; large negatives indicate strong short exposure.

Changes week‑over‑week are just as important. An asset can be net long yet register an “Increasing Bearish” sentiment if long positions fall and shorts rise relative to the previous report. MRKT labels each market’s Market (Bullish/Bearish) based on net positioning and highlights the Sentiment (Increasing Bullish/Bearish) to show the direction of change. For example, on 19 August 2025 the British Pound (B6) remained net short (Bearish market) but the ratio of long positions increased from 39.5 % to 43.3 %, prompting an Increasing Bullish sentiment

MRKT’s COT dashboard: what’s different?

MRKT turns the dense COT report into a clear visual experience:

• Stacked bar chart, Each contract appears as a bar split into green (Long %) and red (Short %). Extremes stand out immediately. You can filter by asset class (Currencies, Energies, Financials, Grains, Indices, Metals, Meats, Softs) or search individual tickers.
• Latest vs This Month, Toggle to see the most recent report or an aggregated view over the month.
• Interactive table, Below the chart, a sortable table lists each symbol with its Market bias, Sentiment shift, Long %, Short %, previous week’s percentages and Net Position. Colours indicate whether positioning is rising or falling.

This interface lets traders quickly identify which markets are crowded long or short and whether positioning is accelerating or reversing.

The Old Way (CFTC Raw Report)

• Published weekly (always 3 days late).
• Pages of dense numbers, no visuals.
• Traders must manually calculate Net Positions, Long %, and Short %.
• Hard to spot shifts in sentiment, buried in thousands of rows.

By the time you interpret it, the market has already moved.

MRKT’s COT Dashboard Features

MRKT takes the raw, hard-to-read COT release and transforms it into a clear, trader-friendly interface. Instead of scrolling through endless rows of numbers, you get instant insights:

Stacked Bar Charts

• Each contract is shown as a bar split into Long % (green) and Short % (red).
• Extreme imbalances stand out immediately (e.g., 80% long or 75% short).
• You can scan across currencies, bonds, metals, and more at a glance.

Interactive Tables

• Below the chart, a sortable table breaks down Market bias, Sentiment shift, Long %, Short %, previous week’s values, and Net Position.
• Color-coding highlights whether positioning is rising or falling.
• No manual calculations needed, MRKT does the math for you.

Deep Dive Features

• Net Positioning by Trader Type (Large Specs, Small Traders, Commercials).
• L/S Ratio (how long/short each group is, historically).
• Open Interest Tracking (volume context).
• Historical Table (week-by-week changes, color coded).

Filtering by Asset Classes

• Quickly filter to see just Currencies, Energies, Financials, Grains, Indices, Metals, Meats, or Softs.
• Or use the search bar to pull up a specific symbol like Gold (GC) or British Pound (B6).

Together, these features make the COT data immediate, visual, and actionable, a tool you can actually trade with, instead of just read about.Together, these features make the COT data immediate, visual, and actionable, a tool you can actually trade with, instead of just read about.

How to use COT data in your trading

1. Identify extremes for contrarian trades, Markets with extremely high long percentages (e.g., Natural Gas at 84 %) are vulnerable to sharp pullbacks if sentiment reverses. Conversely, heavily short markets like 2‑Year and 10‑Year T‑Notes may be poised for short covering rallies.
2. Confirm breakouts with positioning, A bullish chart pattern in gold or the euro is stronger when the COT report shows increasing long interest. MRKT’s Increasing Bullish label helps validate setups.
3. Monitor sentiment shifts, The transition from “Increasing Bullish” to “Increasing Bearish” often precedes trend changes. For example, gold remains net long but sentiment has turned bearish, suggesting longs may be taking profits. Pair these signals with MRKT’s Candle Analysis tool.
4. Blend with macro context, Use MRKT’s Calendar and Live News to contextualise positioning. A surge in bond shorts may be tied to upcoming inflation data or a central‑bank meeting.
5. Risk management, COT data should not be used in isolation; combine it with technicals and fundamental catalysts.

Conclusion

The Commitments of Traders report is one of the few tools that reveals how market professionals are truly positioned. MRKT’s COT dashboard transforms it into actionable insight. The stacked bars highlight crowded long/short markets and the table summarizes each instrument’s bias, sentiment shift and net position

By monitoring extremes, confirming trends and paying attention to week‑over‑week sentiment shifts, traders can anticipate reversals, validate trades and manage risk.

Ready to trade with the smart money? Explore MRKT’s COT Report today and start incorporating positioning data into your strategy.