Every Friday, the COT report gives us a new look at how different groups are positioned in the futures market.
The headline number is useful, but it is rarely the whole story.
A bigger net-long position can come from fresh buying, short covering, or a mix of both. Open interest may be growing at the same time, or falling quietly in the background. Two weeks can end with almost the same net position and still tell very different stories.
That is what I want to look at in this forum.
Each report will have its own discussion, starting with Gold and later moving into other futures markets. The focus will be on what actually changed: longs, shorts, open interest, historical context, and anything in the data that looks unusual or does not quite fit the obvious explanation.
Some weeks may be straightforward. Others may be more interesting because the pieces point in different directions.
There is no need to turn every report into a bullish or bearish call. Sometimes the most useful part of the data is simply noticing that something has changed.
The first Gold COT report will be posted here with the next CFTC release.