Commercial traders. Often seen as the "smart money" with the best market information, commercial traders use futures and options contracts to hedge their business activities. Generally, they are commodity producers, but a growing number are hedge funds that own commodity pools. Analysts usually suggest trading in the same direction as the "commercials" when their net COTs positions hit historic extremes.

Commitments of Traders Reports. The "COTs," as they're usually known, are published by the CFTC (see above) each week Friday at 3:30 p.m. (or the following Monday if there's a holiday). The reports detail futures and options holdings in 90-odd markets, based on data from the previous Tuesday. At the COTs website (click here), the data, including that from past years, can be easily downloaded into spreadsheets for analysis. (See the simple instructions on website.) Combined futures and options data is available for most markets going back to 1995.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC is an independent U.S. government agency created in 1974 to record and monitor futures markets. It publishes the weekly Commitments of Traders Reports.