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COT & futures glossary

60 terms from the Commitments of Traders report and the futures markets, each in a sentence or two. Where we have a lesson or an article on the topic, the term links to it.

The report and the regulator

COT report: Commitments of Traders: a weekly CFTC report that shows how many futures contracts each group of large traders holds long and short in US markets. It shows Tuesday's positions and comes out on Friday. Lesson 1 · How to read it · This week
CFTC: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US regulator of futures, options and swaps markets. It collects position data from brokers and publishes the COT report. Lesson 1
Legacy report: The original COT format: reportable traders split into commercials and non-commercials, plus the small traders below the reporting level. ICC Terminal's weekly table is built on it. Reading the columns
Disaggregated report: A COT format for physical commodities (metals, energy, farm goods) that splits traders into producers / merchants, swap dealers, managed money and other reportables.
TFF report: Traders in Financial Futures: the COT format for currencies, stock indices and interest rates, with dealers, asset managers, leveraged funds and other reportables.
Futures only vs combined: The COT report comes in two versions: futures positions alone, or futures plus options converted to futures-equivalent contracts.
Reportable position: A position at or above the size the CFTC sets for a market. Traders holding one are counted by name in the report; everyone else is a non-reportable.
Release day: The CFTC normally publishes the report on Friday at 3:30 pm New York time, with Tuesday's positions. Holidays can move it to the next working day. This week's report

Trader groups

Commercials (کمرشل · कमर्शियल): Businesses that use futures to hedge real risk: producers, users, merchants and banks. They often sell into rallies and buy into falls, so they usually sit against the trend. Smart money vs hedgers
Non-commercials: Large speculators such as hedge funds and CTAs that trade futures for profit. Many traders call them smart money and follow their net position. Lesson 1 · Smart money vs hedgers
Smart money (اسمارٹ منی · स्मार्ट मनी): The everyday name for the large speculators (non-commercials) in the COT report. ICC Terminal uses it for that group; it does not mean they are always right. The three groups
Non-reportables: Small traders below the CFTC reporting level. Their position is what is left of open interest after the reportable groups are counted. What small traders tell you
Managed money: In the disaggregated report: money managers such as CTAs, commodity pools and hedge funds trading for clients. The closest match to the legacy non-commercials in commodities.
Swap dealers: In the disaggregated report: firms that deal in swaps and use futures to hedge the risk from those swaps, often for clients such as airlines or index investors.
Producer / merchant: In the disaggregated report: businesses that produce, process or handle the physical commodity, for example miners, refiners and grain merchants, hedging their exposure.
Dealer / intermediary: In the TFF report: banks and dealers on the sell side, who often take the other side of client trades in financial futures.
Asset manager: In the TFF report: institutional investors such as pension funds, insurers and mutual funds. They tend to hold slower, longer-term positions.
Leveraged funds: In the TFF report: hedge funds and other money managers, including CTAs, that trade financial futures with borrowed exposure.
Other reportables: Reportable traders who do not fit any of the other groups in the disaggregated or TFF report.
Spreading: Holding a long and a short position in the same market at the same time, usually in different months. The legacy report shows non-commercial spreads in their own column.

Positions and measures

Long (لانگ · लॉन्ग): A position that gains when the price rises: the trader has bought a contract and not yet sold it.
Short (شارٹ · शॉर्ट): A position that gains when the price falls: the trader has sold a contract and not yet bought it back.
Net position (نیٹ پوزیشن · नेट पोज़िशन): Long contracts minus short contracts for one group. Above zero the group is net long, below zero net short. Lesson 2 · This week
Weekly change: How much a group's net position moved since the report before: adding to the position or cutting it. Lesson 2
Open interest (اوپن انٹرسٹ · ओपन इंटरेस्ट): The number of futures contracts still open at the end of a day. It rises when new positions are opened and falls when positions are closed. Lesson 4 · OI + price action
Volume (والیوم · वॉल्यूम): The number of contracts traded during a session. Unlike open interest it counts trades, not positions left open. CME daily report
COT index: Where a group's current net position sits between its lowest and highest level over a look-back window, from 0% to 100%. ICC Terminal uses 13 weeks. Lesson 3 · COT index explained
Positioning extreme: A net position near the top or bottom of its range (a COT index near 100% or 0%). It shows a crowded trade, not a turning date. Reading extremes
Concentration ratio: The share of open interest held by the largest 4 or 8 traders on each side, shown in the full COT report.
OI + price action: Reading price and open interest together: price up with OI up is new buying, price up with OI down is short covering, and so on. The four combinations
5-day bias: ICC Terminal's summary of the last five CME sessions: each session's price and open interest combination is scored and the average becomes a flow index from 0% to 100%. The live bias is part of VIP. Lesson 5 · The 5-day bias

Contracts and the calendar

Futures contract (فیوچرز کنٹریکٹ · फ्यूचर्स कॉन्ट्रैक्ट): An exchange-traded agreement to buy or sell a set amount of something at a set price on a future date. Most traders close it before that date.
Contract size: How much one contract covers, for example 100 troy ounces for COMEX gold or 1,000 barrels for NYMEX crude oil.
Tick size: The smallest price step a contract can move, and the money that step is worth for one contract.
Front month: The contract month closest to expiry, which is usually the most traded. CME data can be read for the front month or for all months together. Front month vs all contracts
Expiry (ایکسپائری · एक्सपायरी): The last day a contract month trades. After it, open positions are settled in cash or by delivery. Expiries and rollovers
Rollover (رول اوور · रोलओवर): Closing a position in the expiring month and opening the same position in a later month. Open interest moves from one month to the next around this time. Expiries and rollovers
Settlement price: The official end-of-day price the exchange sets for each contract, used to mark positions and margin.
Physical delivery: Settling an expired contract by handing over the actual commodity, as with gold or crude oil.
Cash settlement: Settling an expired contract by paying the price difference in money, as with stock index futures.
Preliminary vs final: CME publishes early volume and open interest figures the same evening and corrected final ones the next day. ICC Terminal labels each session and replaces a preliminary one with the final numbers. Preliminary vs final

Exchanges

CME: CME Group, the Chicago exchange group that runs CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. Its daily volume and open interest feed ICC Terminal's flow tabs. CME daily report
CBOT: Chicago Board of Trade, part of CME Group: grains, soybeans, US Treasury futures and the Dow futures.
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange, part of CME Group: crude oil, natural gas and other energy futures. Crude oil COT
COMEX: Commodity Exchange, part of CME Group: gold, silver and copper futures. XAUUSD traders follow COMEX gold. Gold COT report
ICE: Intercontinental Exchange: Brent crude, the US dollar index and soft commodities such as sugar and coffee.
MCX: Multi Commodity Exchange of India: gold, silver, crude oil and other commodity futures traded in rupees. India markets
NSE: National Stock Exchange of India, home of Nifty and Bank Nifty futures and options. Nifty open interest
PMEX: Pakistan Mercantile Exchange: gold, crude oil and other futures traded in Pakistan, priced from world markets. PMEX gold guide · PMEX gold COT (اردو)

Prices and trading

Hedge (ہیج · हेज): A position taken to reduce the risk of another one, such as a miner selling gold futures to lock in a price. Why hedgers trade against the trend
Speculator: A trader who takes on price risk to make a profit, with no physical business to protect. The three groups
Margin (مارجن · मार्जिन): The deposit an exchange or broker requires to hold a futures position. Initial margin opens it; maintenance margin must stay in the account.
Leverage: Controlling a large position with a small deposit. It makes gains and losses larger than the money put in.
Basis: The difference between the cash (spot) price and the futures price of the same thing.
Contango: When later futures months are priced above nearer ones, often because of storage and financing costs.
Backwardation: When later futures months are priced below nearer ones, often a sign of tight supply right now.
Spread: The price difference between two contracts, such as two months of the same market or two related markets.
Block trade: A large trade agreed privately and then reported to the exchange, instead of going through the order book.
Inverted futures: Currency futures quoted the other way round to the pair you trade: yen, franc and Canadian dollar futures move opposite to USDJPY, USDCHF and USDCAD. Lesson 7 · How currency futures are quoted
CFD: Contract for difference: a broker product that follows a price, such as XAUUSD. It has no COT report of its own, so traders read the matching futures. Gold COT report

Learn it in order

The free COT & CME flow course puts these terms into 8 short lessons, from the three trader groups to a weekly routine.

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Education, not investment advice. Trading futures and CFDs with leverage carries a high risk of losing money.