The Commitments of Traders is a weekly market report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enumerating the holdings of participants in various futures markets in the United States. It is collated by the CFTC from submissions from traders in the market and covers positions in futures on grains, cattle, financial instruments, metals, petroleum and other commodities. The exchanges that trade futures are primarily based in Chicago and New York.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) releases a new report every Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and the report reflects the commitments of traders on the prior Tuesday. The weekly Commitments of Traders report is sometimes abbreviated as "CoT" or "COT."[1]
The report was first published in June 1962, but versions of the report can be traced back to as early as 1924 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain Futures Administration started regularly publishing a Commitments of Traders report.[2]