How to Read the Simplified COT Report — The Complete Guide

A complete, beginner-friendly guide to reading the CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) reports — read on the site, not a download. Part 1 covers the basics: where the data comes from, how it is released, and an in-depth explanation of every column (longs, shorts, change in longs/shorts, net positions, net change, net % change, percent of open interest, open interest and the price column). Part 2 explains the colour system in our simplified reports so you can spot shifts in market sentiment at a glance. Part 3 walks through a worked example — the Japanese Yen report read against USD/JPY — so you can connect institutional positioning to price like a professional. Every example is a live report on this site, so nothing ever goes out of date.