The Commitment of Traders (COT) report is released every Friday at 3:30pm ET by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It breaks down that week's open interest — as of the prior Tuesday — for every futures market where enough large traders hold reportable positions.
It's the closest thing the futures market has to an X-ray: instead of just price, you see who actually holds the open contracts behind that price.
Extremes matter more than the raw number. When non-commercial length in a market reaches a multi-year high, it means the obvious bullish case is already crowded — most of the money that wanted in is already in, which is exactly the setup that leaves a market vulnerable to a sharp reversal if the story changes. The COT report is how you see that crowding forming before it shows up as a violent move in price.
It's a sentiment and positioning gauge, not a timing signal — the report is a week old by the time it's published, and crowded positioning can stay crowded for a long time before it unwinds. Most traders use it alongside price action and the futures curve, not on its own.
Commodity Hub's COT positioning & seasonality tool tracks commercial and non-commercial positioning for every futures market it covers, with a regime scanner that flags when positioning is running unusually hot or cold against its own history. Open the app to see current positioning.