On COT Report - Part II. - How does the report show traders’ positions?

In the commitments of traders reports, traders are grouped into categories and the number of contracts they hold are added up. All COT reports show how many long and how many short contracts do traders of each category hold. The COT report that is the most well known is the one that is in publication since 1986 (its predecessors go back to 1924) – the Legacy commitments of traders report. It breaks down the market into three major categories, the Commercials, the Large Speculators and Non-reportables (who are the small guys, Small speculators).