# CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) Tracker (`scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker`) Actor

Weekly CFTC Commitments of Traders positioning for every US futures market: how commercials, large speculators, managed money, and leveraged funds are long/short in FX, gold, crude, indices, and crypto futures, with net position and week-over-week change. Legacy, disaggregated, and TFF reports.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Ken M](https://apify.com/scrapemint) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) Tracker

The weekly **Commitments of Traders** report, straight from the official **CFTC** Public Reporting database — no API key, no account. See how the big trader classes are positioned (long vs short) in every US futures market: FX, gold, crude oil, equity indices, Treasuries, and crypto futures. For each market you get open interest, each group's long/short, the **net position**, and the **week-over-week change** — the numbers COT traders actually act on.

### Who uses it

- **FX, futures & commodity traders** — the ForexFactory/TradingView crowd who read COT every week to gauge smart-money positioning and crowding.
- **Quants & systematic desks** — COT is a classic sentiment/positioning factor; pull history for backtests.
- **Financial newsletters & analysts** — "Managed Money just flipped net short crude" is a recurring story.

### Report types

| `reportType` | Trader classes | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| `legacy` (default) | Large Speculators, Commercials, Small Traders | Any market — the classic COT |
| `disaggregated` | Producer/Merchant, Swap Dealers, Managed Money, Other | Commodities |
| `financial` | Dealers, Asset Managers, Leveraged Funds, Other | FX, rates, equity indices |

### Input

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `markets` | Filter by market-name keyword (e.g. `GOLD`, `EURO FX`, `BITCOIN`, `S&P 500`). Empty = all markets. |
| `latestOnly` | On: just the newest weekly report. Off: history going back `weeksBack`. |
| `weeksBack` | Weeks of history per market when `latestOnly` is off. |
| `maxRows` | Cap on rows per run. |
| `dedupe` | Return only report weeks not seen before — pair with a weekly schedule for a new-report alert. |

### Output

One row per market: `reportType`, `reportDate`, `market`, `exchange`, `contractCode`, `openInterest`, `openInterestChange`, `headlineGroup`, `headlineNet`, `headlineNetChange`, and a `groups` array where each entry has `group`, `long`, `short`, `net`, and (Legacy) `netChange`, `pctLong`, `pctShort`.

The COT report is released each **Friday** at 3:30pm ET, covering positions as of the prior Tuesday. Schedule this actor weekly with `dedupe` to catch each new release.

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$0.004 per market row**. The first 2 rows of every run are free.

Data source: CFTC Public Reporting Environment, `publicreporting.cftc.gov` (US government, public domain).

# Actor input Schema

## `reportType` (type: `string`):

Which COT report. Legacy = Large Speculators / Commercials / Small Traders (the classic, covers all markets). Disaggregated = Producer-Merchant / Swap Dealers / Managed Money / Other (commodities). Financial = Dealers / Asset Managers / Leveraged Funds / Other (FX, rates, equity indices).

## `markets` (type: `array`):

Filter to markets whose name contains one of these, e.g. EURO FX, GOLD, CRUDE OIL, BITCOIN, S\&P 500, NASDAQ, 10-YEAR. Empty = every market in the report.

## `latestOnly` (type: `boolean`):

On: only the most recent weekly report. Off: return a history going back the number of weeks below.

## `weeksBack` (type: `integer`):

When 'Latest report only' is off, how many weeks of history to include per market.

## `maxRows` (type: `integer`):

Cap on rows returned. Controls total cost.

## `dedupe` (type: `boolean`):

Remember returned market+report-date rows across runs and skip them. Turn on with a weekly schedule to get alerted only when a new COT report drops.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "reportType": "legacy",
  "markets": [
    "EURO FX",
    "GOLD",
    "CRUDE OIL",
    "BITCOIN",
    "S&P 500"
  ],
  "latestOnly": true,
  "weeksBack": 12,
  "maxRows": 200,
  "dedupe": false
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "markets": [
        "EURO FX",
        "GOLD",
        "CRUDE OIL",
        "BITCOIN",
        "S&P 500"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "markets": [
        "EURO FX",
        "GOLD",
        "CRUDE OIL",
        "BITCOIN",
        "S&P 500",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "markets": [
    "EURO FX",
    "GOLD",
    "CRUDE OIL",
    "BITCOIN",
    "S&P 500"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapemint/cftc-cot-tracker",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/tRBcPmar3LDQDnpcc/builds/l9PaNLejSHq6JwMYB/openapi.json