For the first time since the government shutdown began in December 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has released current Commitments of Traders (COT) data. Per their standard schedule, the data in the current report was tabulated on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, and released on Friday, March 18, 2019, at 2:30 pm Eastern time.

All COT data and charts on this site were up-to-date on Saturday, March 9, 2019, per our standard schedule. Data and charts include both the current report and all weekly data released on a delayed basis in January and February.

Expect regular delayed updates each Wednesday & Saturday until March 9, when the CFTC expects to catch up with current reports. (Schedule in the previous post.)

Since changes in trader positions are cumulative, there is no other way for the CFTC to release current data without creating each delayed weekly report in sequence.

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Market Intelligence Branch of the Division of Market Oversight today announced an updated release schedule for CFTC weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) reports that were delayed during the government shutdown. The goal of the new report schedule, per the CFTC, is to provide market participants with data as quickly as possible, within the agency’s resource constraints.

While we may be anxious to see the current data, keep in mind that the weekly reports are cumulative. The CFTC has no choice in the order of compilation. We should be thankful that they release missing data points as they collate them. They have a near-perfect reporting record since the COT report was reintroduced in 1983. The only missing data in these 36 years is the New York markets for the week of 9/11, when the CFTC’s NY office (along with many of the reporting brokers) was located in the World Trade Center.

COT reports are typically compiled on Tuesday’s for the previous week, and released on Fridays. The last COT report was published on December 21, 2018. Reports going forward from that date will be published in chronological order beginning with the report previously scheduled for release on Friday, December 28, 2018, based on data from Monday (due to Christmas holiday), December 24, 2018. The CFTC expects to publish this report on Friday, February 1, 2019.  After this, the CFTC expects to publish one report on Tuesday and another on Friday of each week until the reports are current as per the normal schedule. Based on the announcement (and barring another government shutdown), the schedule–as I calculate it–going forward should be:

CommitmentsOfTraders.org will publish individual weekly update batch files, updated history files, and updated charts as each COT report is released. Check this page for any schedule changes.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued this notice on December 24:

“During the shutdown of the federal government, the Commitments of Traders report will not be published. When the federal government operations return to normal, CFTC will resume publication of the Commitments of Traders report.”

Until COT data publication resumes, we will be unable to update charts and data files on our website. Stay tuned…

COT data that is normally released on Friday, will be delayed until Monday afternoons Dec 1; Dec 29, 2014; and Jan 5, 2015. Data and charts will be updated by Tuesday.

The CFTC today released Commitments of Traders reports that should have been released on Oct 4, with data tabulated as of Oct 1, 2013. The data and charts on this site have been updated accordingly. More updates will be posted when available.

The CFTC will begin catching up with Commitments of Traders releases that were miss due to the government shutdown. They expect to be fully current by November 8. The CFTC announcement is available herre: http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6745-13

“October 17, 2013

CFTC Announcement Concerning Commitments of Trader and Cotton on Call Reports

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) announced today that the Commitments of Traders and Cotton on Call reports previously scheduled for release on October 17^th and October 18^th respectively, will not be published this week. The CFTC is performing the work necessary to resume publishing these and other reports and will announce a revised schedule once more information becomes available.”

The CFTC will not publish COT data during the US government shutdown. (There is no other source for this information.)