Guides, research, and analysis on institutional futures positioning — COT fundamentals, z-score signals, market-specific deep dives, and more.
How gold traders use the CFTC Commitment of Traders report — which disaggregated report to watch, how to read Managed Money vs Swap Dealers vs Producer/Merchant hedging, z-score and open-interest setups, and 2015, 2020 and 2024 case studies.
How equity-index traders use the CFTC Commitment of Traders report for the S&P 500 — why it uses the Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) report, how to read Leveraged Funds vs Asset Managers, the basis-trade caveat, and why index COT is trickier than commodities.
How crude oil traders use the CFTC Commitment of Traders report — which disaggregated report to watch for WTI and Brent, how to read Managed Money vs Producer/Merchant hedging and Swap Dealers, z-score and open-interest setups, and how positioning ties to the forward curve.
What the futures forward curve is, how to read contango and backwardation, what calendar spreads reveal about market structure, and how to combine curve data with COT positioning signals.
How the COTInsight TradingView indicator works — three panels covering z-score extremes, COT Index normalization, and momentum regimes across 100+ auto-detected futures markets.
How forex traders use the CFTC Commitment of Traders report — which TFF report and Leveraged Funds category to watch, z-score and divergence setups, and EUR/USD, GBP, JPY and AUD examples.
What the COT z-score is, how it's calculated from 52-week Managed Money positioning, how to interpret the ±1.5 and ±2.0 thresholds, and how to use it as a contrarian or trend signal.
Learn how to read the CFTC Commitment of Traders (COT) report step by step — net positioning, Managed Money, z-scores, and the divergence setups professional traders use. Updated 2026.