Who uses the COT report?

[Imbrium]

Hello.

Please forgive my noobeeishness, but I was wondering who here uses the COT report as part of their trading, and if you find it useful.

Thanks!

[davidnard]

Hi,

He's an answer from a fellow newb,


I have been using COT data for a few months now. While I don't base my trading decisions on it, I do take it into consideration. If there's a lot of divergence between spec and comm, I look for a relative high/lo (I use an hourly chart over a 20-day time period) to establish a good entry point.

I'm still VERY VERY new at trading, but this has definately helped boost my account size. Remember though, entry is everything. The first time I looked at COT data I jumped right in on the Swissy and ended up losing most of my shirt, lol. Had I waited for a good entry point, I wouldve made several hundred instead of losing...well nevermind how much I lost, lol!

Hope this helps.

What site do you use for COT data?
I use http://www.orc.ca/~blees/top-cot.htm
its only like $4.95 per month and he does all the charting of the data automatically. What's nice though is you can download the data into a tab-delimited file and make your own charts out of the data; combine that with a daily or hourly chart of the same period is good for learning market timing.

-DAve

[Imbrium]

Hi there!

Thanks for answering! As for where I get my COT data, I get it from two sources:

The first is from the CFTC website itself, as they also report open interest. Unfortunately there is no chart provided with the information: http://www.cftc.gov/

The other two sites are free and include charts:
http://freecotcharts.com/
http://www.dailyfx.com/ (look for the cot report link on the bottom right of the page)

LOL! You might say I'm on a strict budget! But the freebies aren't bad. Anyway, it sounds good. I'll keep my eye on the report and see how it affects the timing of my trades.

[Trader01]

Originally Posted by Imbrium

Hello.

Please forgive my noobeeishness, but I was wondering who here uses the COT report as part of their trading, and if you find it useful.

Thanks!

COT is used by highly sophisticated, advanced money losers.

[Imbrium]

Originally Posted by Trader01

COT is used by highly sophisticated, advanced money losers.

Ok, so why is that? Could you be a bit more specific?

[davidnard]

Like all things in the market, there are those that are for and against everything. Some people swear by one technical indicator while others wouldn't use it to save their life. Same with COT. I personally find it valuable as a tool when used in conjunction (thats the key) with other trading tools. Trader01 obviously doesn't, and nothing wrong with that. I doubt you'd find anything in the market that more than half the people on the forum would agree with!

-Dave

[Imbrium]

Well, can't argue with that!