I made the attached indicator to graph the COT report. I'm sharing it so that I can also get some advice from some experts about how to interpret COT data. I've seen some posts on a number of forums, but, have found some confusing and contradictory statements.
The indicator looks at the net difference between long and short orders for commercial and noncommercial traders. If you look at a COT report, I just take the net longs and subtract the net shorts. If the number is positive, then the bar will be positive. If it's negative, the bar will be negative.
Is there another way to look at COT data, or is this correct? What should we pay attention to in terms of changes?
I'm including a screenshot of a weekly chart with the COT data. The weeks should coincide together between the histogram and the price bars, but, I haven't validated this.
To set this up, unzip the cot.zip contents (a single CSV file) to the experts/files directory (this is for MT4) and then put the mq4 file in the experts/indicators directory. Compile the indicator, then add the indicator to a weekly chart for best results. Hover over the histogram bars to see whether it's displaying commercial or non commercial values.
stockwet
The indicator looks at the net difference between long and short orders for commercial and noncommercial traders. If you look at a COT report, I just take the net longs and subtract the net shorts. If the number is positive, then the bar will be positive. If it's negative, the bar will be negative.
Is there another way to look at COT data, or is this correct? What should we pay attention to in terms of changes?
I'm including a screenshot of a weekly chart with the COT data. The weeks should coincide together between the histogram and the price bars, but, I haven't validated this.
To set this up, unzip the cot.zip contents (a single CSV file) to the experts/files directory (this is for MT4) and then put the mq4 file in the experts/indicators directory. Compile the indicator, then add the indicator to a weekly chart for best results. Hover over the histogram bars to see whether it's displaying commercial or non commercial values.
stockwet