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Commitments of Traders Report (COT) for Measuring Sentiment

No volume data is available in spot forex trading, as there is no centralized exchange to gather the data. To compensate for this notable drawback, professional forex traders have used Commitments of Traders Report (COT) as a substitue for estimating forex trade positioning and forecasting price trends. COT can be used as a efficient tool for measuring market sentiment as well as for fundamental analysis.

What is Commitments of Traders Report (COT)? It is a weekly report published by the Commodity futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of USA, listing current contract commitments by 3 groups of futures market participants: Commercial, Non-commercial, and Non-reportable. Issued on Friday, the COT report provides a “breakdown of each Tuesday's open interest for markets in which 20 or more traders hold positions equal to or above the reporting levels established by the CFTC” (CFTC).

When using the COT report, pay particular attention to the Non-commercial data, which better reflects forex traders' positions in a currency market. Meanwhile, shift in market positioning and changes in open interest can be used to gauge trend strength, whereas extreme data in open interest often indicates price reversal.

Click here to read the COT report on the CFTC website

Here is the COT report in graphic format. It uses forex data from the CFTC's COT report and present it in easy-to-read charts:

COT Charts

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