Commitments of Traders
How to read the COT report, step by step
A COT table becomes much easier to read when you follow the same order every week. This guide explains each data block through one complete hypothetical example.
The reading order
The Commitments of Traders report divides a market’s open interest among broad trader categories. Read the label and date first, then work across the position columns. This keeps the reported numbers separate from any conclusion you later draw from them.
If the terminology is entirely new, begin with What is the COT report?. This guide focuses on the next step: reading one market row from left to right.
1. Select the right report
Start with three choices. First, choose the report family. The Legacy report separates reportable traders into commercial and non-commercial categories. The Disaggregated report provides four categories for physical commodities, while TFF provides four categories for financial futures. The category names are not interchangeable, so compare a series only with the same series from the same report family.
Second, choose Futures Only or Futures and Options Combined. In a combined report, the CFTC converts options into delta-adjusted futures-equivalent positions using exchange-supplied factors. Combined open interest is therefore a futures-equivalent total, not a count of option contracts, and it should not be mixed with Futures Only data.
Finally, choose the available layout. Legacy and Disaggregated reports come in long and short formats. TFF is long format only, while the Supplemental report is short format only. The long format adds crop-year detail where applicable and concentration ratios. For a full comparison, see the COT report types guide. The official structures are listed on the CFTC’s COT reports page.
2. Confirm the market and as-of date
Read the full market and exchange name, not just the familiar commodity label. Similar contracts can trade on different exchanges or represent different products, sizes and delivery terms. The CFTC contract market code provides a stable identifier when names look similar.
Next, find positions as of. That is the date of the snapshot, normally Tuesday. It is not the publication date. Under the normal schedule, the CFTC publishes the report on Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time; holidays can change the timetable. A Friday price move therefore cannot explain a position that was measured at Tuesday’s close. The release schedule guide explains this delay in more detail.
A hypothetical row to keep beside you
The rest of this guide uses a hypothetical Legacy Futures Only short-format row with open interest of 500,000 contracts. Together, its position columns describe both sides of that market total.
| Category | Long | Short | Spreading | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-commercial traders | 180,000 | 120,000 | 40,000 | +60,000 |
| Commercial traders | 220,000 | 300,000 | — | −80,000 |
| Nonreportable positions | 60,000 | 40,000 | — | +20,000 |
3. Read open interest first
In this Futures Only example, open interest is the number of contracts that remain open rather than having been offset, settled or delivered. Every open futures contract has a long side and a short side, so aggregate long open interest equals aggregate short open interest. It is one market total, not the sum of a separate “long open interest” and “short open interest.”
Open interest supplies the denominator for the percentage columns and gives every category position its scale. Its weekly change tells you whether the number of open contracts rose or fell. A rise can accompany many combinations of trader activity. Read more in Open interest in the COT report. The formal definition is in the CFTC’s Legacy explanatory notes.
4. Separate long, short and spreading
In the Legacy report, non-commercial positions appear in three columns: Long, Short and Spreading. Where spreading is shown separately, equal long and short amounts are placed in Spreading. The Long and Short columns show what remains on each side. Commercial positions in Legacy appear as Long and Short without a separate Spreading column.
Spreading represents equal long and short positions held by the same trader within the market, usually across contract months. For example, if a non-commercial trader holds 2,000 contracts long and 1,500 short, the Legacy table places 500 in Long and 1,500 in Spreading. Intermarket spreads are not included in that calculation. To reconstruct the category’s contribution to each side of open interest, add Spreading to Long and add it again to Short.
A commonly calculated field is the net position:
positive = net long · negative = net short · spreading excluded
Net position is a calculated summary rather than a separate CFTC category. It uses the published Long and Short fields. Spreading cancels because it contributes equally to both sides, but it still needs to be read as its own field. The dedicated COT net positions guide covers that distinction.
In the hypothetical row, non-commercial traders are net long 60,000 contracts: 180,000 Long minus 120,000 Short. They also hold 40,000 in Spreading. Commercial traders are net short 80,000, while nonreportable positions are net long 20,000. The three net positions sum to zero.
“Non-commercial traders are net long 60,000” describes the row. Whether that matters for price requires market and historical context.
Compare the 60,000-contract net position with the same market, category and report type over time. The COT Index adds range context, but it is a calculated indicator rather than a CFTC field.
5. Distinguish reportable from nonreportable
Reporting firms submit a trader’s positions when that trader reaches the CFTC reporting level in any single futures month or option expiration. The firm then reports the trader’s entire position across all expirations in that commodity. These positions are classified and aggregated as reportable.
Nonreportable positions are different. The CFTC derives them on each side by subtracting all reportable positions, including Spreading on both sides where shown, from open interest. The report does not publish a trader count for that remainder or classify it as commercial or non-commercial. Calling it “small traders” is therefore convenient shorthand, not an official classification. The distinction is explored further in Commercial vs. non-commercial traders.
6. Why both sides equal open interest
Every open futures contract has one long side and one short side. In a Legacy Futures Only report, non-commercial spreading appears on both sides because it represents equal long and short positions:
Short side = 120,000 + 40,000 + 300,000 + 40,000 = 500,000
Both sums produce the reported open interest of 500,000. This is the expected structure of the table: spreading contributes equally to both sides, while nonreportable positions complete the market total. Combined reports express the same relationship with delta-adjusted futures-equivalent open interest rather than raw option contract counts. Because of option-delta calculations, a reconstructed long or short side in a Combined file may be one contract above or below reported futures-equivalent open interest.
7. Read weekly changes as differences
The change block subtracts the previous report’s value from the current report’s value. In the hypothetical example, open interest rose by 10,000 contracts, from 490,000 to 500,000, while the category columns changed as follows:
| Category | Long | Short | Spreading | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-commercial traders | +12,000 | +2,000 | +1,000 | +10,000 |
| Commercial traders | −4,000 | +8,000 | — | −12,000 |
| Nonreportable positions | +1,000 | −1,000 | — | +2,000 |
Non-commercial net positioning increased by 10,000 because longs rose by 12,000 while shorts rose by 2,000. Commercial net positioning decreased by 12,000, and the nonreportable net increased by 2,000. Those net changes again sum to zero.
The same relationship appears in the weekly changes. On the long side, +12,000 in non-commercial longs, +1,000 in spreading, −4,000 in commercial longs and +1,000 in nonreportable longs total +10,000. The short-side changes total the same amount.
Non-commercial Long is 12,000 contracts higher than in the previous report. That does not mean the report recorded 12,000 individual purchases. It compares two aggregate snapshots, and totals can also change when traders cross a reporting threshold or are reclassified.
8. Use percentages to judge scale
The percentage block expresses each published position as a share of total open interest. In the hypothetical example, non-commercial Long, Short and Spreading positions equal 36%, 24% and 8% of open interest. Commercial Long equals 44% and Commercial Short 60%. Nonreportable Long and Short equal 12% and 8%.
Spreading appears on both sides of the percentage block: 36% + 8% + 44% + 12% = 100% on the long side, while 24% + 8% + 60% + 8% = 100% on the short side. Published percentages may not total exactly 100% because the CFTC rounds them. In Combined reports, the denominator is futures-equivalent open interest.
The CFTC publishes a separate percent-of-open-interest field for each Long, Short and Spreading value. A net percentage is different: it is calculated as 100 × (Long − Short) / open interest. Neither measure shows how unusual a position is within its own history.
9. Treat trader counts as participation data
The report also gives the number of reportable traders. The total counts each trader once, but category counts can count the same trader more than once. A non-commercial trader may appear in Spreading and either the Long or Short count; a commercial trader may appear in both Long and Short. The category counts can therefore add up to more than the total number of reportable traders.
Trader counts describe participation, not conviction. A category held by 30 traders is not automatically more bullish or bearish than one held by 20, and the total position need not be distributed evenly among them. Where a category has fewer than four active traders, the CFTC can suppress its trader count to protect confidentiality while still publishing the position size.
A repeatable weekly workflow
- Choose the series. Record the report family, Futures Only or Futures and Options Combined edition, layout and contract market code.
- Record the as-of date. Keep it separate from the Friday publication date and from any later price information.
- Read open interest. Note its level and weekly change before looking at individual groups.
- Read every position field. Note Long, Short and, where shown separately, Spreading. Then calculate Long minus Short.
- Read changes and percentages. Describe what changed first, then add an explanation when other evidence supports it.
- Add history. Compare the same series with its own prior values rather than treating a raw contract count as large or small in isolation.
- Add price separately. Align price to the Tuesday snapshot, then decide whether positioning confirms, diverges from or simply does not explain the price trend.
What the row cannot tell you
- Individual traders or motives. Public COT data is aggregated. A category label does not reveal why each position is held.
- Positioning after Tuesday. The normal Friday release does not show changes made between Tuesday’s close and publication.
- The next price move. Position fields describe the reporting date; they do not forecast direction or timing.
- The trader’s wider exposure. A futures position may hedge cash, physical, swap or other risk not shown in the row.
Keep three things separate in your notes: the published fields, your calculations and your market interpretation.
Official CFTC sources
The definitions and accounting rules in this guide follow the CFTC’s Legacy explanatory notes and its guide to reading COT reports. Current and historical rows can be filtered and downloaded from the official Legacy Futures Only dataset.
Common questions
What should I look at first in a COT report?
First confirm the report family, whether it is Futures Only or Futures and Options Combined, the exact contract market and the as-of date. Then read open interest and the trader-category columns. This keeps the series consistent and separates Tuesday's positions from later price information.
How do you calculate a net position from the COT report?
Subtract a category’s short positions from its long positions. A positive result is net long; a negative result is net short. Spreading is not added to that calculation because it represents offsetting long and short positions. See the net-position guide for a fuller explanation.
Why do the COT positions not add up to open interest?
In a Legacy report, non-commercial spreading belongs to both the long and short sides, while nonreportable positions complete each side of open interest. In a Combined file, option-delta calculations can also leave a reconstructed side one contract above or below reported futures-equivalent open interest.
Do weekly COT changes show how many contracts traders bought or sold?
No. They show the difference between two weekly category totals, not individual purchases or sales. A trader crossing a reporting threshold or changing classification can also move those totals.
Can the COT report be used as a trading signal?
The report provides positioning context, not a price forecast. Compare the same COT series with its history, price and market structure, then apply your own entry and risk rules.
