Guide
Legacy vs disaggregated COT report (and TFF, supplemental)
There are four COT report types, and choosing the wrong one quietly breaks an analysis. This guide compares the legacy, disaggregated COT report, Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) and supplemental reports — their categories, coverage and history — and shows which to use for which question.
The four report types
The CFTC publishes four flavours of the Commitments of Traders report. The legacy report is the original, with history since 1986. The disaggregated COT report covers physical commodities and has been published since 2009 with history backfilled to 2006. The Traders in Financial Futures (TFF) report does the same job for financial futures. The supplemental report adds commodity index trader positions for selected agricultural markets. FinzData serves all four across 950+ futures markets, weekly.
Legacy report categories
The legacy report splits open interest into three buckets:
- Commercial — hedgers using the market to offset business risk.
- Non-commercial — large speculators, mostly funds.
- Non-reportable — positions below the CFTC reporting level, the small-trader residual.
Its strengths are the longest history (since 1986) and coverage of every reportable market. Its weakness is that swap dealers are lumped into commercial, which distorts the hedger/speculator split in markets with heavy index or swap activity.
Disaggregated report categories
The disaggregated COT report covers physical commodities (energy, metals, grains, softs, livestock) and splits the legacy groups further:
- Producer/Merchant/Processor/User — the true commercial hedgers.
- Swap dealers — banks hedging OTC and index swap exposure, separated out from commercials.
- Managed money — CTAs, hedge funds and other managed accounts; the cleanest speculator series.
- Other reportables — large traders that fit none of the above.
Publication began in 2009, with history backfilled to 2006 — so backtests before 2006 must fall back to the legacy report.
TFF and supplemental
The TFF report applies the disaggregated idea to financial futures (equity indexes, Treasuries, currencies): dealer/intermediary, asset manager/institutional, leveraged funds and other reportables. The split between asset managers (real-money hedging and allocation) and leveraged funds (directional macro bets) is the key read in bond and equity-index futures.
The supplemental report covers selected agricultural markets and breaks out commodity index traders — the passive long-only index flow that is invisible in the legacy categories.
Comparison table
| Report | Markets | Key categories | History |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy | All reportable futures | Commercial, non-commercial, non-reportable | Since 1986 |
| Disaggregated | Physical commodities | Producer/merchant, swap dealers, managed money, other reportables | Published 2009, history to 2006 |
| TFF | Financial futures | Dealer, asset manager, leveraged funds, other | Published 2009, history to 2006 |
| Supplemental | Selected agricultural | Adds commodity index traders | Since 2006 |
Which to use for what
- Long backtests before 2006, or any market outside the disaggregated/TFF coverage: legacy.
- Speculator positioning in gold, crude, corn and other physicals from 2006 on: disaggregated, using managed money.
- Treasury, equity-index or FX futures: TFF, watching leveraged funds versus asset managers.
- Studying passive index flow in grains and softs: supplemental.
Whichever you choose, normalise with a COT index before comparing across markets.
Pulling any report in Python
import finzdata as yf
c = yf.Client()
# Same interface for all four report types
legacy = c.cot(report="legacy", market="GOLD")
disagg = c.cot(report="disaggregated", market="GOLD")
tff = c.cot(report="tff", market="10Y_NOTE")
supp = c.cot(report="supplemental", market="CORN")
print(disagg.columns)
print(tff.tail())Frequently asked questions
What is the disaggregated COT report?
A CFTC report for physical commodity futures that splits the legacy categories into producer/merchant/processor/user, swap dealers, managed money and other reportables. It has been published since 2009 with history backfilled to 2006.
What is the difference between legacy and disaggregated COT?
Legacy uses three broad categories (commercial, non-commercial, non-reportable) and goes back to 1986. Disaggregated separates swap dealers from true commercial hedgers and isolates managed money, but only covers physical commodities from 2006.
What is the TFF report?
Traders in Financial Futures — the disaggregated-style report for financial futures such as Treasuries, equity indexes and currencies, with dealer/intermediary, asset manager/institutional, leveraged funds and other reportables.
Which COT report should I use for gold?
For analysis from 2006 onward, the disaggregated report — managed money is the cleanest speculator series. For backtests before 2006, use the legacy report, which reaches 1986.
What is the supplemental COT report?
A report for selected agricultural markets that additionally breaks out commodity index trader positions, separating passive index flow from other participants.
How far back does each COT report go on FinzData?
Legacy reaches 1986; disaggregated, TFF and supplemental reach 2006. FinzData serves all four across 950+ futures markets, weekly, with a computed 0-100 COT index.