Free COT Indicator for MetaTrader – Get it now!

ForexTraders.com now brings you a FREE COT indicator for Metatrader. With our COT indicator you will receive the latest Commitment of Traders figures as soon as they are released by the CFTC. You will even be able to use the COT data in your expert advisors!
 
All you need to do to access our live streams is to join our "Beta" program:

1. Sign up for our newsletter.
2. Then send an email to beta[at]forextraders.com an request an invite for the COT indicator (using the same email address).
3. Once you receive the invite, follow the instructions in that email.
4. Start using the COT indicator and provide us with feedback!

How the COT reports can improve your trading

Currencies are traded over-the-counter all over the world with no central market or exchange. As a consequence, there is no reliable volume data available that includes all the trades made in the  foreign exchange market. The Commitment of Traders (COT) Reports provides traders with a snapshot of how different groups of traders are positioned and can be used as a replacement for volume data in both technical and fundamental trading strategies.

The Commitment of Traders (COT) report is issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows how small speculators, commercials and large speculators are positioned in the currency markets. The reports provide a breakdown of each Tuesday's open interest. For a longer discussion on how the COT reports can be used in trading please have a look at this article: Using the COT reports to predict forex price movements.

How to setup the COT indicator

To install, simply copy the COT indicator to your Metatrader's experts\indicators folder. You may need to restart Metatrader if you have it running, in order for the indicator to show up.

The COT indicator has a number of modes, depending on how you set the indicator's parameters. The default mode shows the actual values for each of Large Commercial Longs and Shorts, Small Commercial Longs and Shorts and the Non-reported Traders Longs and Shorts. The chart below shows this default mode. The numbers in the left (which do not show up the real chart, they were added afterwords) show which line is which value:

  1 - Commercial Longs
  2 - Commercial Shorts
  3 - Non-Commercial Longs
  4 - Non-Commercial Shorts
  5 - Non-reported Traders Longs
  6 - Non-reported Traders Shorts

You don't need to remember that, simply hold the arrow over one of the lines and a yellow box will pop up and tell what the line is.

The next image shows the parameters available. These are the default values. The parameters are defined as:

Show.Net.Positions - Shows the Net (Longs-Shorts) positions of each for the three groups of traders
Show.Net.Positions.Index - Shows the Net as a percentage of the total position

The following specify the settings for each line. If the setting is true, the line is shown, if false, the line is hidden
Show.Open.Interest - Show the total positions of all three groups
Show.Non.Comm.Long - Show the line for the Non-commercials longs
Show.Non.Comm.Short- Show the line for the Non-commercials shorts
Show.Comm.Long - Show the line for the Commercials longs
Show.Comm.Short- Show the line for the Commercials shorts
Show.Non.Reported.Long - Show the line for the Non-Reported longs
Show.Non.Reported.Short - Show the line for the Non-Reported shorts

The last 3 specify different modes for the overall positions.
Show.Change - Shows the change between the current week and the previous week.
Show.Percentage - Shows the positions as a percentage of the open interest.
Show.Percentage.Change - Show the week over week change as a percentage.

The chart below shows two indicator windows with a copy of the COT indicator in each. The first one is set up to show Net Positions, the second shows the Net Position Index. This is perhaps the most useful setup for trading as it shows everything you need on one chart.

In this mode, the Green line is the Commercial traders net position, the red is the Non-Commercial trader's net position and the orange is the Non-Reported traders (or the small non-commerical) traders positions.