Table Of Contents
- What is the COT report?
- MRKT vs Prime Terminal: is the COT report free or paid?
- What's inside MRKT's free COT terminal?
- What did the free COT report show this week?
- Summary and FAQ
Prime Terminal's homepage has a section called "What you replace". In it, they list "the CFTC website on Friday night" as one of the painful things their terminal saves you from.
They're right that the CFTC website is painful. What they don't mention is that the COT data on it is free, it's been free for decades, and you can now read it ranked, charted and explained for free too.
So we went through both sites properly. Prime Terminal's homepage, pricing, trial flow and terms of use. MRKT's pricing and its free COT report, tested on live data. Here's the COT report on both: where it's free, where you pay, and what the free one actually looks like.
What is the COT report?
The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is free weekly data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showing who's long and short in futures markets. It's published every Friday at 3:30pm ET with positions as of Tuesday. Every platform that shows COT, paid or free, is reading the same public file.
The quick version of what's in it:
- Large speculators: hedge funds and CTAs trading for profit. The crowd.
- Commercials (hedgers): producers and banks hedging real business. Usually on the other side.
- Small traders: positions too small to report. The closest thing to retail.
- Managed money and leveraged funds: the CFTC's sharper cuts of the fund crowd, for commodities and for financials.
The one thing to know: the net position on its own tells you nothing. Gold funds are net long almost every week. What matters is how stretched positioning is against the market's own history. That's the part you used to need a spreadsheet for, and it's the part that decides whether a COT tool is worth anything.
That's the foundation. Now the part you came for.
MRKT vs Prime Terminal: is the COT report free or paid?
On MRKT, the COT report is free: no account, no card, no trial. On Prime Terminal, COT positioning is a widget inside a paid plan that costs $149 a month, $124 a month on a $1,488 annual plan, or $99 a month only with $2,399 paid upfront for 24 months. Both read the same free CFTC file.
That's the whole story, so let's sit with it for a second. The CFTC publishes COT data for free every Friday. MRKT takes it, ranks it, charts it and hands it to you for nothing. Prime Terminal takes the same file and puts it behind a checkout page.
What it costs you to see this week's COT
- MRKT: $0. Open mrktedge.ai/cot-report. Done.
- Prime Terminal: $149 for the first month, minimum. PMT's homepage says "from $99/mo", but that rate needs $2,399 on day one and a 24-month lock-in. Monthly, it's $149. That's $1,788 a year to read a government file that's free.
What you have to do before you can even look at it
- MRKT: nothing. No signup wall, no email, no "book a demo".
- Prime Terminal: their "Start free trial" button doesn't start a trial. It opens a WhatsApp chat with a pre-typed message asking for one. So step one of checking who's long gold this week is handing your phone number to a sales chat
What's inside MRKT's free COT terminal?
MRKT's free COT terminal shows 17 futures markets on one page, each ranked against 3 years of CFTC data. It flags what's crowded long or short, shows weekly streaks, switches between large specs and fund managers, shows who's on which side, scores each market from −2 to +2, and opens a 3-year chart for any market in one click.
This is the part Prime Terminal won't show you before you pay. Here's all of it, free, top to bottom.
1. The scoreboard: the whole Friday in four boxes
The first thing you see replaces your entire Friday night on cftc.gov:
- Most crowded long: Nasdaq, 98th of 100 over 3 years.
- Most crowded short: GBP, most short in 3 years.
- Biggest shift this week: CAD, specs added 25,461 contracts net short, 7.3% of open interest.
- Next report: a live countdown to Friday 3:30pm ET.
Ten seconds, and you know where the stretch is.
2. Every market on one line
Under the scoreboard, 17 markets: gold, silver, copper, oil, S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow, Bitcoin, the 10-year T-note, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, NZD, CHF and the dollar index. Each row gives you:
- Net position, tagged LONG in green or SHORT in red.
- This week's change with a streak label, like "3rd week selling" on gold or "7th week selling" on the S&P.
- Vs last 3 yrs: Normal, Crowded long, Crowded short, or extremes like "Most short in 3 yrs".
- A 13-week sparkline, so you see the direction of positioning, not just one snapshot.
Filter tabs (All, FX, Metals, Energy, Indices, Bonds, Crypto) cut it down to what you actually trade.
3. The toggle: large specs or fund managers
One click top right. Large specs uses the CFTC's Legacy non-commercial numbers for every market. Fund managersswaps in managed money for metals and energy, and leveraged funds (hedge funds and CTAs) for currencies, indices, bonds and Bitcoin. The scoreboard, list and full table all switch with it.
This matters more than it sounds. This week, large specs are the most crowded long in the Nasdaq. Flip the toggle and leveraged funds are net short. Same market, opposite stories, one click.
4. Who's on which side
For every market, three bars: large specs, small traders, hedgers, each showing what share of that group is long or short, plus a Same side or Opposite label. Gold right now: specs 89% long, small traders 75% long, hedgers 84% short. The whole crowd in one boat.
5. The full report and the COT score
Scroll down for the full CFTC table, grouped by asset class: long and short contracts, weekly change on each side, long share and its move in points, net position, the 3-year context and a COT score from −2 to +2. +1 if specs are net long (−1 if net short), +1 if their long share rose on the week (−1 if it fell). GBP this week: −2. Short and getting shorter.
6. Three years of history on any market
Click any market and a panel opens with net contracts as bars and long percentage as a line, switchable between 26 weeks, 52 weeks and 3 years. On top, the read in plain English. For gold: money managers net long 120,318 contracts, 92% long, more long than 52% of weeks in 3 years, down 7,071 on the week. Underneath, every CFTC category: managed money, producers and merchants, swap dealers and other reportables.
This is the screen that kills the spreadsheet. On MRKT it's a click. On Prime Terminal, you pay $149 a month first, and their website doesn't tell you whether a view like this is even in there.
7. It updates itself
Positions are as of Tuesday, the CFTC publishes Friday at 3:30pm ET, and MRKT's page updates on its own when the new report lands. You don't refresh a spreadsheet. You open a link.
What did the free COT report show this week?
On the CFTC data for 29 September 2026, MRKT's free COT report flagged the Nasdaq as the most crowded long (98th of 100 over 3 years), GBP as the most crowded short (most short in 3 years), and CAD as the biggest weekly shift, with specs adding 25,461 contracts net short.
Proof it's not a toy. I clicked through every toggle and checked the math by hand. Gold large specs: 249,736 long minus 31,104 short is 218,632 net, 89% long share. Matches the page exactly. Three reads that took me under five minutes, for free:
- Gold's "92% long" is normal. Money managers are 92% long gold, which sounds maxed out. Ranked against 3 years, it's only more long than 52% of weeks. They're on a 5-week selling streak: still long, losing steam.
- The Nasdaq crowd is fighting itself. Large specs are the most crowded long on the board. Flip the toggle and leveraged funds are net short 24,723 contracts and adding. Same Friday, opposite stories.
- Everyone's short GBP. Large specs are the most short in 3 years, small traders are short with them, only hedgers are long. COT score −2.
That toggle, the 3-year rank and the who's-on-which-side view are exactly what you'd be paying a terminal for. On MRKT they're a link.
Summary
- The COT report is free public CFTC data, released Fridays at 3:30pm ET.
- MRKT's COT report is free with no account: 17 markets, ranked against 3 years, two trader views, who's on which side and a 3-year chart for every market.
- Prime Terminal (Prime Market Terminal, PMT) puts COT inside a $149 a month plan. The $99 rate needs $2,399 upfront for 24 months, the trial is requested on WhatsApp, and purchases are final.
- MRKT Pro is $49.99 a month or $499 a year, about a third of PMT, and you don't need it for COT.
FAQ
Where can I see the COT report for free?
On MRKT at mrktedge.ai/cot-report. No account, no card. It covers 17 futures markets, ranks positioning against the last 3 years and updates every Friday when the CFTC publishes.
Is Prime Market Terminal worth it for COT data?
No. COT is one widget inside Prime Terminal's plan, which costs $149 a month, or $99 a month only with $2,399 paid upfront for 24 months. The same CFTC data is free on MRKT.
What's the best free alternative to Prime Terminal?
MRKT also gives away its economic calendar, Trump Tracker and currency strength index with no account. MRKT Pro covers the paid macro tools for $49.99 a month.
When is the COT report released?
Every Friday at 3:30pm ET, with futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. MRKT shows a live countdown to the next release.
What does "crowded long" mean on MRKT?
Large speculators are more long, relative to open interest, than in 90% of weekly reports over the last 3 years. It's a measure of how stretched a market is, not a sell signal..
Stop paying for free data
This Friday at 3:30pm ET, don't open cftc.gov, and don't open a WhatsApp chat to beg for a trial. Open MRKT's free COT report, see who's crowded, flip the toggle, and walk into Monday knowing who's trapped.
When you want the live read, big money leaning in candle by candle around CPI, NFP and FOMC, MRKT Pro is $49.99 a month. A third of what the other guys charge.