the so-called COT, that is, the CommitmentOf Traders, is the abbreviation of trader's power of attorney. It is the trading data in the the New York Mercantile Exchange futures market released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission every Friday after the market COMEX, that is, the number and changes of positions in the current week and the previous week.

COT includes the data of three parts of traders:

1. Large institutional traders engaged in speculative trading such as hedge funds are called non-commercial traders. The main purpose of their trading is to profit from trading, so no matter whether the price of gold goes up or down, it is possible to make a profit by trading. Usually they don't buy or sell physical objects, but only trade on the books.

2. gold mines, jewelry manufacturers and other institutions engaged in gold business are called commercial dealers. The main purpose of their trading is to lock in the price and avoid losses when the price fluctuates greatly. To this end, they often sell gold in advance when the price of gold is expected to fall; Or buy gold in advance when the price of gold is expected to rise; Avoid losses. They may ask for physical delivery, that is, physical gold instead of book transactions.

3. Retail investors, usually called unreported small speculators, are ordinary investors with poor strength. Mainly follow the trend.

COT data are divided into three categories: long positions, short positions and arbitrage positions, which are commonly called lock positions, holding both long and short positions at the same time to earn the price difference.

It is generally believed that the position direction of big speculators will determine the trend of gold price. Therefore, people are most concerned about the changes of big speculators' positions, especially the increase or decrease of net long positions. If the net long position (that is, the net value of long positions MINUS short positions) rises, it indicates that big speculators are trying to push up the price of gold. However, if the net long position is too high, such as reaching a historical high, it may lead to a decline in gold prices in the short term. Because although they buy long futures positions, they don't intend to get and hold physical gold, so they must liquidate the contract before it expires, that is, sign short contracts to ensure market balance. Therefore, when selling, the price of gold will move in the opposite direction.