Gold COT Report
The Commitment of Traders (COT) report shows how the largest traders are positioned in Gold futures each week. The CFTC splits open interest into speculators (managed money) and commercial hedgers, so you can see who is leaning which way. Tracking when Gold speculative positioning reaches an extreme, and how speculators line up against commercials, is one of the most widely followed sentiment tools in futures.
What drives Gold positioning
In metals, commercial hedgers are typically miners, refiners and fabricators selling forward production, while managed money expresses macro, real-rate and inflation views. When speculators in Gold crowd to one side versus the prior year, the positioning structure is often stretched. Gold positioning is driven by real yields, the US dollar, central-bank buying and safe-haven demand. The commercials are bullion banks and producers hedging forward, while managed money expresses the macro view.
How to read the Gold COT report
For Gold, the cleanest read is the 52-week z-score, which shows how far speculative positioning sits from its one-year norm: a high positive reading means funds are crowded long, a deeply negative one crowded short. In metals those crowded extremes often line up with exhaustion in the macro trade, and the positioning regime tells you whether the structure is still trending or already stretched. Gold speculative longs can stay crowded through a long trend, so pair a stretched z-score with the open-interest trend and a turn in real yields before fading it. New to this? Start with how to read the COT report.
COTInsight scores Gold on nine analytical layers every week, the moment the CFTC data lands: the 52-week z-score, the 3-year COT Index, regime classification, price-versus-positioning divergence, open-interest trend and more, with up to ten years of history so you can see how today compares to every prior extreme.
Gold COT report FAQ
Which CFTC report covers Gold?
Gold positioning comes from the CFTC Disaggregated Commitments of Traders report, which splits Gold open interest into Producer/Merchant/Processor/User and Swap Dealer hedgers on one side and Managed Money and Other Reportables on the other. COTInsight reads it directly from the CFTC every week.
When is the Gold COT report updated?
The CFTC releases the Commitments of Traders report every Friday at 3:30pm ET, reflecting positions as of the prior Tuesday. COTInsight recomputes the Gold z-score, COT Index and regime the moment the data lands.
Is Gold COT positioning bullish or bearish right now?
The COT report is a positioning and sentiment gauge, not a direct buy or sell signal: it shows whether speculators are crowded long or short in Gold. COTInsight scores this week's Gold reading on a 52-week z-score, a 3-year COT Index and a positioning regime. Start a free 7-day trial to see the current reading.
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