When Is the COT Report Released? Timing and Schedule Explained

The CFTC Commitment of Traders (COT) report is released every Friday at 3:30pm Eastern Time. But here is the part that trips up most traders: the positions in that report are as of the prior Tuesday, not Friday. That built-in delay is the single most misunderstood thing about the report, and understanding it changes how you use the data.

The short answer

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission publishes the COT report once a week:

So when you open Friday's report, you are not looking at where speculators are positioned right now. You are looking at where they were committed on Tuesday.

Why the COT report is delayed

The delay is not a flaw, it is the cost of accuracy. The CFTC collects position data from reporting firms as of Tuesday's close, then spends the rest of the week compiling, checking, and aggregating it before release. Reporting positions of this scale across every major futures market simply takes time to verify.

The result is a clean, reliable snapshot, just one that is a few days old by the time you see it. For positioning analysis, that trade-off is completely acceptable: large speculators do not flip billion-dollar books overnight, so a three-day-old picture of the crowd is still highly useful.

What happens on holidays

When a U.S. federal holiday lands during the week, the schedule shifts. The CFTC typically pushes the release back by one business day. So a report that would normally drop on Friday may instead come out the following Monday. If you are expecting data on a holiday week, check the CFTC's published schedule rather than assuming the usual Friday slot.

How to actually use the timing

Once you accept that the report is a Tuesday snapshot, the way you use it shifts in a healthy direction:

It is a positioning map, not a timing signal

Because the data is three days old, the COT report is not built for entries and exits. It is built to tell you where the crowd is committed: which trades are crowded, where positioning sits at an extreme, and which way the big money has been leaning. You use it to understand context, then time your actual trades with price.

The weekly change matters as much as the level

One of the most useful columns is how positions moved versus the previous week. A market sitting at a long extreme that is still adding longs tells a different story than one that is starting to unwind. The direction of the change is often the earliest hint that a crowded trade is shifting.

Frequently asked questions

When is the COT report released?

Every Friday at 3:30pm Eastern Time, after the futures market closes. The data reflects positions held as of the prior Tuesday.

Why is the COT report from Tuesday and not Friday?

The CFTC collects positions as of Tuesday's close, then needs the rest of the week to compile and verify the data before publishing it on Friday.

Does the COT report come out on holidays?

When a U.S. federal holiday falls during the week, the release is usually delayed by one business day, so a Friday report may publish on the following Monday.