U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Plans to Increase Publication Frequency of "Traders' Position Report" to Twice Weekly

On October 27, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is working to increase the publication frequency of the highly anticipated Commitments of Traders (COT) report to twice a week by the end of this year. Currently published every Friday, the report details buying and selling activities in commodity markets, distinguishing between hedge funds and other asset management institutions as well as commercial trading participants.

Producers rely on this report to assist in making hedging decisions, while speculative traders use the data to observe market position changes and assess whether related bets have become overly concentrated. CFTC Chair Michael Selig stated last week at an agricultural commodity futures conference held in Kansas that the plan to increase the report’s publication frequency originated from the agricultural industry’s requests. (Jin10)