COMMITMENTS OF TRADERS REPORT - FREE Summary of the US Government Report

WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE CFTC REPORT: "Disaggregated Commitments of Traders - Options and Futures Combined"

The following table is the new "WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE DISAGGREGATED CFTC REPORT." The new CFTC report currently only covers twenty-two commodities and was FIRST ISSUED ON SEPTEMBER 4, 2009. The CFTC says future reports will expand coverage to more commodity futures markets and a three year history will become available before the end of the year.

Individual market disaggregated reports are linked in the column at the right.

The CFTC's explanation of the new report ( Click here to see the CFTC Disaggregated Explanatory Notes ) says the new report increases transparency from past COT reports by separating the reportable (large account) traders into four categories. (See descriptions in the right column.)

CFTC reportable trader classifications
Original Report	Supplemental Report	New Disaggregated Report
Commercial Other Reportables (Non Commercial Large Trader)	Commercial Commodity Index Trader Other Reportables (Non Commercial Non Index Large Trader)	Producer-Merchant-Processor- User Swap Dealers Money Managers Other Reportables (Non Commercial Non Swap Non Money Managed Large Trader)

Content of the Disaggregated Commitments of Traders Report

Producer/Merchant/Processor/User. A “producer/merchant/processor/user” is an entity that predominantly engages in the production, processing, packing or handling of a physical commodity and uses the futures markets to manage or hedge risks associated with those activities.

Swap Dealer. A “swap dealer” is an entity that deals primarily in swaps for a commodity and uses the futures markets to manage or hedge the risk associated with those swaps transactions. The swap dealer’s counterparties may be speculative traders, like hedge funds, or traditional commercial clients that are managing risk arising from their dealings in the physical commodity.

Money Manager. A “money manager,” for the purpose of this report, is a registered commodity trading advisor (CTA); a registered commodity pool operator (CPO); or an unregistered fund identified by CFTC. These traders are engaged in managing and conducting organized futures trading on behalf of clients. (An unregistered fund may have a Part 4 exclusion from CTA/CPO registration or be a non-U.S. entity that is unregistered. So called “hedge funds” are included in this category, regardless of whether they are registered.)

Other Reportables. Every other reportable trader that is not placed into one of the other three categories is placed into the “other reportables” category.

Current Disaggregated Reports from CFTC web site
	Disaggregated Futures Only		Disaggregated Futures-and-Options -Combined
Agriculture	Long Format	Short Format	Long Format	Short Format
Petroleum and Products	Long Format	Short Format	Long Format	Short Format
Natural Gas and Products	Long Format	Short Format	Long Format	Short Format
Electricity	Long Format	Short Format	Long Format	Short Format
Metals and Other	Long Format	Short Format	Long Format	Short Format
Disaggregated Futures-Only Commitments of Traders Comma Delimited Disaggregated Futures and Options Commitments of Traders Comma Delimited Disaggregated Explanatory Notes

Beginning in 2002, the CFTC will release the "with options" data on Friday evenings at the same time as the "futures only" reports. The weekly commentary on the "Net Options" summary will be combined into the "futures only" commentary.

Commitments of Traders calendar of 2004 CFTC release dates. Weekly Commitments of Traders Reports are released by the CFTC every Friday after the close of business, effective for the prior Tuesdays. The release dates may be adjusted to accommodate holidays. Usually, the www.commitmentsoftraders.com Internet Edition of the Commitments of Traders Report is updated with the new CFTC information by 4 PM Central time after the release of the "futures only data."

The CFTC has posted a background report of the COT Report. See Backgrounder-The Commitments of Traders Report The Report contains general background information and detailed explanatory notes for the short form, the long form, and the options-and-futures-combined reports.

Beginning in January 2002, the CFTC releases the futures data combined with the net deltas of option positions on each Friday evening. The weekly report shows the information as of the close for the previous Tuesday.

The tables in this Web site are summaries of selected data obtained from the report issued by an agency of the US Government, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The entire report can be obtained from http://www.cftc.gov/ .

The "v" or "v-" following the net position in the 12 week summary tables indicates if the net position is within 95% of the high of the five year range, or within 5% of the low of the five year range. "I" or "I-" indicate within 95% or 5 % of the one year range. "III" or "III-" indicate within 95% or 5% of the three year range.

Footnotes on data presented:

All data has been drawn from the CFTC website and begins with January 1986. Accuracy of the data is not guarenteed by the CFTC or by the publisher in any way.
Lumber changed with the May 96 contract to 80,000 board feet from 160,000. Open interest data for prior to May 96 is doubled and reflected in the current information.
S&P open interest data prior to 10/31/97 has been restated by doubling such amounts to reflect the change in the multiplier from $500 per point to $250.
Lean
Hog data is combined with the Live Hog data from prior to the contract change in 1997.
The Feeder Cattle contract change from 44,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds with the Jan 1993 contract did not result in a change in CFTC reporting.
The change in the Grain contracts 12/31/97 from stated in number of thousands of bushels to contracts of 5,000 bu is reflected in past data by dividing the published numbers by 5.

C 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,2003,2004 George Slezak
For more information call George at 1-888-311-3400

All aspects of any trade recommendations contained in this report are subject to modification at any time.

FUTURES TRADING INVOLVES SIGNIFICANT RISK OF LOSS AND IS NOT SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE AND THE RISK OF LOSS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED CAREFULLY BEFORE MAKING ANY TRADES. A STOP LOSS MAY NOT LIMIT YOUR LOSS TO THE AMOUNT INTENDED. YOU SHOULD BE FOREWARNED THAT SYSTEMS WHICH TRIGGER FREQUENT TRADING SIGNALS AS PART OF A DAY TRADING STRATEGY CAN RESULT IN SUBSTANTIAL COMMISSIONS AND FEES. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. ANY STATEMENT OF FACTS HEREIN CONTAINED ARE DERIVED FROM SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE, BUT ARE NOT GUARANTEED AS TO ACCURACY, NOR DO THEY PURPORT TO BE COMPLETE.

ANY REFERENCE TO PERFORMANCE IS INTENDED TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS STRICTLY THEORETICAL.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES REGARDING HYPOTHETICAL RESULTS

HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE MANY INHERENT LIMITATIONS, SOME OF WHICH ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN. IN FACT, THERE ARE FREQUENTLY SHARP DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND THE ACTUAL RESULTS SUBSEQUENTLY ACHIEVED BY ANY PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM.

ONE OF THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS IS THAT THEY ARE GENERALLY PREPARED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. IN ADDITION, HYPOTHETICAL TRADING DOES NOT INVOLVE FINANCIAL RISK, AND NO HYPOTHETICAL TRADING RECORD CAN COMPLETELY ACCOUNT FOR THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL RISK IN ACTUAL TRADING. FOR EXAMPLE, THE ABILITY TO WITHSTAND LOSSES OR TO ADHERE TO A PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM IN SPITE OF TRADING LOSSES ARE MATERIAL POINTS WHICH CAN ALSO ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS. THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO THE MARKETS IN GENERAL OR TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ANY SPECIFIC TRADING PROGRAM WHICH CANNOT BE FULLY ACCOUNTED FOR IN THE PREPARATION OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND ALL OF WHICH CAN ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THE RISK OF LOSS EXISTS IN FUTURES TRADING.

All traders should read the CFTC CONSUMER ALERTS and the "COMMISSION ADVISORY" on trading systems.