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Symbol
The symbol button allows you to choose the markets you want to chart. Markets are grouped by categories which include: CME Currencies, Energy, Forex, Grains and Soy Complex, Indexes, Interest Rates, Meats, Metals and Softs.
Many futures markets are still traded in the pits as well as electronically. For those markets you will see the market listed twice, one with the extension (Elec). Elec is an abbreviation for Electronic.
Linked and Months
Commodity futures contracts are identified by Market, Month and Year. When you first choose a symbol, which is the market, the Month selector will default to Linked. You can then choose a specific Month and Year to chart the contract you’re interested in. Only the available Months for that market are offered to you which is why you don’t always see all twelve months.
The Linked series on Timing Charts are created by linking together contracts to build a continuous string of price data. As the front month contract comes to an end, the next contract in line takes its place by linking it to the continuous price file. No attempt is made to adjust this Linked series for gaps as the data is rolled from one contract to the next. This preserves the actual historical price which makes looking at deep history possible.
Year
When a Month is selected the Year selector becomes available. The Year will default to the current year until late December when it will advance to the next. The next year will always be available so you can see next years contracts, current, and historical years.
Daily, Weekly, Monthly or D | W | M
Bar | Candle
Bar charts are thin solid lines with a tick on the left and a tick on the right. The opening price for the day is represented by the tick on the left, the high is the top of the bar, the low is the bottom of the bar and the close is the right tick. Bar charts are the default option.
Candle charts are made up of a body and wick. The body is the wide part of the candle and the wicks are the thin lines that may be visible above and or below the body. The body is determined by the open and closing price. The color of the body is determined by a positive or negative close. Timing Charts colors the body Green if the close is greater than the open and Red if the close is less than the open.
Dark | Lite
Indicator
The indicator button will bring up a dialog box with a selection of indicators. Clicking on the symbol name will draw the study on the chart. Some of the indicators default as price overlays and others default to a subchart.
C.O.T
C.O.T. is the acronym for Commitments of Traders. The Commitments of Traders are a collection of weekly reports issued by the CFTC. The complete contents of those reports can be accessed and explored here on Timing Charts.
Database
The first drop-down selector within the control panel contains the available databases. You can jump from one database to the next and the results will immediately output to the chart. The available databases (reports) are described next.
Futures Only - This is the oldest of the C.O.T. reports dating back to January 1986. As the name implies, this report tracks futures positions only, no options.
Options and Futures - This report began in March of 1995 as a result of options trading growth. The CFTC calculates a delta weighting for options contracts and then sums the deltas to calculate the equivalent number of futures contracts to include in the report.
The Futures Only and Options and Futures reports are concerned with tracking and detailing the positions of the following three groups of traders:
Commercials - These are the producers and end users of the commodity or futures market. However, other large traders such as swap dealers have been aggregated under this category over the last several years.
Large Traders - Also titled Large Speculators in newer reports. This group is made up of Commodity Pools, Hedge Funds, CTA’s and any other entity that trades above the specified contract threshold mandated by the CFTC.
Small Speculators - Also called non-reportable in the reports because they don’t have positions large enough to be required to report their positions to the CFTC.
C.I.T. - Commodity Index Traders is referred to as Supplemental data by the CFTC. This report began in January of 2007 but was released with one year of history, so the data goes back to January of 2006. The purpose of this report was to create a new category forLong-Only Swap Dealers - this group buys futures to be placed in ETF’s and ETN’s.
In 2007 when the report was first issued, only 12 markets were included. In April of 2013, Soybean Meal was added to the list making the total 13.
COFFEE C - ICE FUTURES U.S.
Output
The second drop-down selector in the C.O.T. Control Panel allows you full control over what is output to the chart. A few calculations have been preconfigured for you and you have the option to create your own custom calculations.
Net Position - This is the most common of calculations performed by those who study the C.O.T. reports so this one is preconfigured for you. Each of the trading groups tracked by the CFTC have details about the positions they hold. To get the Net Position of each of the groups, the Total Long positions are subtracted from the Total Short positions for each group.
Large Long (All) - Large Short (All) = Large trader Net Position
When the Net Position is selected three colored buttons for each of the trading groups will be presented. Clicking these buttons will add/delete that group from the chart. If you want to study the Specs, the smallest of the groups, deselect Comm and Large to allow the Specs to fill out the scale.
C.O.T. Index - The Net Positions are used to create the C.O.T. Index. This index scales the results of the Net Positions to a range from 0 to 100 based on the specified lookback period which is input in the Index Weeks field. The Index Weeks is the number of weeks you want to use to create the scale. If you want to see the last 6 months then use 26 weeks, for 1 year, use 52 weeks, etc.
The C.O.T. Index finds the highest Net Position within the number of Input Weeks you request and assigns that a value of 100. It also finds the lowest value in the Index Weeks and assigns that a value of 0. All other Net Position values are assigned a value that places them in their respective position on the scale of 0 to 100.
C.O.T. Index = (Current Net Position - Minimum Net Position[Index Weeks]) / (Maximum Net Position[Index Weeks] - Minimum Net Position[Index Weeks])
Move Index - Steve Briese introduced this calculation in his book “Commitments of Traders Bible”. It takes the C.O.T. Index output and finds the Rate of Change or (ROC) and outputs that result. When Move Index is selected you will see a second input box call ROC Weeks. This allows you to enter the number of weeks used in the ROC calculation.
Move Index = C.O.T. Index[Current] - COT Index[ROC Weeks].
Custom - When Custom is selected a third drop-down selector is presented which contains all of the fields available in the database chosen. The first field in all databases is Open Interest so it will default to that field and immediately output the Open Interest to the chart. You can select any other field within the list and it will immediately output to the chart, replacing what was there.
/ for division
Choose any of the operators and another Custom drop-down will be presented to allow you to choose another field from the database to perform the calculation on. You can do this as many times as you like to create your own custom formulas.
The normal mathematical order of precedence does not apply here. Each calculation is performed in the exact order presented. Each additional calculation uses the completed result up to that point and performs the next requested calculation.
Second C.O.T. Panel - This allows you to create a second C.O.T. subChart to plot a second C.O.T. line. It will create a subChart below the first C.O.T. subChart.
Sentiment
Market sentiment is derived from either trader opinion or actual positions. Forex daily market sentiment is derived from actual trader positions. This also includes Gold and Silver semtiment. All other commodities that have daily market sentiment are derived from trader opinion.