Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today launched new features for the widely popular Commitments of Traders (COT) reports. These new features offer easy to locate historical data as part of a modernization initiative intended to improve data access. The traditional weekly report will still be available on the CFTC’s website. The new environment gives users the flexibility to access the COT reports in the traditional format they are familiar with or utilize new enhanced capabilities.  

“Our Commitments of Traders reports deliver unparalleled data access and market transparency; they serve the public interest and signify our commitment to providing a consistent and reliable channel for information flow,” said Chairman Rostin Behnam. “The latest enhancements reflect deliberate prioritization of data improvements through leveraging technology aimed at increasing data access, transparency and usability for all stakeholders and the public at large. Staff in the Markets Intelligence Branch and the Division of Data worked diligently to deliver improvements responsive to the needs of our ever expanding and evolving markets.”

The CFTC has published COT reports for almost a century, with the earliest report being published in an annual form in 1924 by the first predecessor of the CFTC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain Futures Administration. Monthly reports began in June of 1962 and covered 13 agricultural commodities. Today, the COT is published weekly, with the most recent report covering data across 70 commodities in agriculture, petroleum and products, natural gas and products, electricity, and metals and others. The reports, which are delivered via email to 56,000 recipients weekly and represent over 20 percent of CFTC.gov website traffic. The reports are used by traders, researchers and news organizations to report and analyze market trends.

The new environment is intended to bring greater transparency to historical information and bring modern functional enhancements for users. The Division of Market Oversight’s Market Intelligence Branch (MIB) and the Division of Data (DOD) collaborated to develop the Public Reporting Environment as part of the CFTC’s data agenda and ongoing effort towards achieving greater transparency and accessibility.

Enhancements include:

• Users can download data for specified markets and reporting dates. The data can be downloaded either via drop-down menus of via an Applications Program Interface (API).
• The API allows users to retrieve data programmatically via proprietary code. Specific documentation with instructions for each report is available via a link on the report-specific page that opens when users select a particular report.
• Drop-down navigation for users to easily select market groups, subgroups and/or individual COT-eligible contract markets for retrieval of current and historical information.

Users can access the new Public Reporting Environment here, as well as a User Guide and FAQs.

About the Market Intelligence Branch (MIB)

MIB is a branch in the Division of Market Oversight (DMO) that is responsible monitoring the health and the market structure of U.S. futures, options and swaps markets, highlighting emerging trends and identifying structural or potential systemic risks. The branch also leads critical studies in these markets and provides advice on policy, risk management, and oversight matters to the Commission, as well as shares information with various stakeholders such as Congress and the public. The branch is also responsible for producing various regular CFTC reports, such as the Commitments of Traders report.

About the Division of Data (DOD)

The Division of Data (DOD) is responsible for the CFTC’s enterprise data strategy and data governance approaches. DOD creates data architecture and centers of excellence for analytics, visualization, and storage of data. In addition, DOD supports the CFTC’s strategic objectives with respect to data and analytics through collaboration with other Divisions and Offices, including ingest of data from registered entities pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, as well as integration of that data with other data sources.