By: John Thorpe, Cannon Trading Senior Broker
A data source that escapes many futures traders and should be reviewed if you are a serious position trader are the reports compiled on a weekly basis by our chief regulator, The Commodity Futures Trading Commission CFTC. These reports offer insight into market imbalances, liquidity, and large bank, both domestic and international, participation. I encourage all traders, even day traders, to familiarize yourself with these reports as they provide a salient view of market structure given a particular futures contract as the structure changes over time.
There is:
1) BPR’s “Bank Participation Rate” reports which, by open interest you can view market imbalances. Bank Participation Rate Webpage
Another report compiled by the CFTC is the:
2) Net position changes. The Large Trader Net Position Changes and the Trading Account Net Position Changes data provides the public with a view of the amount of trading that results in net changes to positions at the trader level and at the account level. Net Position Changes Webpage Read the rest of this entry »