Using COT Signals

Start with Highlights for a ranked selection of markets with positioning signals. Use Signal Explorer for market summaries or individual trader-group readings.

Signal Matches shows readings meeting predefined rules. Custom Screener tests your own numeric condition within the page filters.

Each result belongs to an exact contract. Inspect the report, trader group, tested values, and available explanation in the result. Choose View COT Analysis for supporting measurements and full comparisons.

The overview counts markets with a positioning signal out of all markets in the current filtered view. It uses the full market set, not just the Highlights shown, trader-group rows, or rule matches. Counts use available data; check coverage notes for limited comparisons.

When available, Send feedback in the preview notice or on the button at the lower right of the screen on desktop opens a Tally form in a new tab. Tell us what was unclear or did not work. Screenshots and a reply email are optional; leave out sensitive information. Permission to contact you about feedback does not subscribe you to the newsletter.

Choose Add to my watchlist on a market card to save that exact CFTC contract. You stay on Signals, and other cards for the same contract update to On my watchlist after the save is confirmed. That link opens your saved list. If the list is full, use My Watchlist to make room. If a save cannot be confirmed, wait for the saved list to reload and check it before trying again.

Major is a hand-picked selection of contracts from Core. Core uses market-name and category rules to leave out niche contracts. All removes the universe restriction; your other filters still apply.

This is curation, not a liquidity, volume, or forecast ranking or your saved watchlist. Report, trader-group, freshness, and result-limit settings still apply. All does not mean every historical CFTC contract is available.

Universe, report type, and trader group narrow the page’s results together. Filters apply automatically. All reports keeps report families separate; it does not add their positions together.

Custom Screener also uses its own report and trader-group choices. These intersect with the page filters. If those choices conflict, there is no effective scope and no matching result. Change the relevant filter deliberately; opening help does not change it.

Results per section controls the displayed Explorer and Signal Matches results. Grouped matches count markets; individual matches count readings. Highlights has its own limit of 6 markets.

All requests the available results up to the server limit: 250 per Explorer or Signal Matches section, and 100 Custom Screener matches. The page reports truncation when a limit is reached. Narrow the filters to inspect a smaller set.

All in Universe selects the market scope. All in Results per section controls the display limit. They answer different questions.

Highlights shows a ranked selection of markets with positioning signals in the current view. The order uses the positioning readings of each market's leading trader group. It is not a forecast or a probability of profit.

A summary selects a qualifying reading separately for each signal type. Repeated rule matches and overlapping reports are not independent votes and do not add points to the market’s ranking.

Market Stories gives compact market summaries. Trader-group explorer shows individual readings, including those without a qualifying signal.

Upper Range and Lower Range focus on historical-position readings. Large Net Increases and Large Net Decreases focus on changes. Net Flips shows turns net long or net short. Keep the report, group, and coverage notes with each result.

Read explanation opens the context beneath a table result. View COT Analysis opens the exact market’s fuller analysis. Appearing in several views does not create independent confirmation of a forecast.

Markets already shown in Highlights keep their place in the Market Stories list but start folded because their details appear above. Open them one at a time with Show details, or together with Show all highlighted details. Folding does not remove markets or change the list’s counts or ranking. It applies only to Market Stories, not to trader-group presets or individual rule matches.

Signal Matches shows report/group readings that meet predefined rules. Grouped results collect matches for one exact contract; the individual view lists matching readings separately.

The result itself identifies the matching group, rule, tested value, and condition. Its featured summary may describe a different group. Keep the actual matching evidence with the result.

Choose a report, trader group, metric, condition, and value, then run the screen. For example, COT Index ≥ 90 is a possible numeric query, not a recommendation or trading strategy.

The screen intersects with the page filters. Inspect the effective scope, tested value, coverage, and any report-gap notes. A custom condition can match available values that do not qualify as an ordinary positioning signal.

This tests current observations, not subsequent returns or a backtest. Changing inputs does not make a previous result current: follow the page’s stale-result indication and run the screen again.