Glossary
COT report (Commitments of Traders)
A weekly CFTC report on US futures positions by trader category. It is published on Friday at 15:30 New York time with data from the preceding Tuesday.
The COT report (Commitments of Traders) is published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It shows the open positions of large traders in US futures markets, including gold, split by trader category. The disaggregated version uses four: producer/merchant/processor/user, swap dealers, managed money and other reportables. It is generally published on Friday at 15:30 New York time, using data from the preceding Tuesday.
Example
Positions as of Tuesday, 6 October 2026 are due on Friday, 9 October 2026. If managed money in gold holds 150,000 long contracts and 30,000 short, its net position is 150,000 − 30,000 = 120,000 contracts long. Most readers then look at how that number changed from the week before.
Why it matters
The data are three days old when published and describe futures, not CFDs. They show who is positioned and how heavily, but positioning describes the market rather than timing it. Holidays can shift the release.