I've been reading more about the Commitment of Traders Report and how knowing not only non-commercial positions but commercial as well can assist in longer term trades.  For those of you that don't know what the Commitment of Traders report is, let me tell you.

Some of this information was provided with assistance from Alexander Elder's book, "Entries and Exits"

First, the report is really the only way for private traders to get an idea of the volume for each currency pair.  Each week (Wednesday), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission releases the number of open positions, short positions and long positions in a given commodity.  These positions are given for 3 groups of traders, hedgers, big traders, and small traders.   "Savvy COT analysts compare current positions to historical norms and look for situations where hedgers, or the smart money (big traders) and small traders... are dead set against each other.  If one group is heavily short while the other is heavily long, which one would you like to join?  If you find that in a certain market the smart money is overwhelmingly on one side, while the small spec are mobbing the other, it is time to use technical analysis to look for entries on the side of the hedgers."

Currently, I only provide non-commercial positions or small traders.  You can read more about how to use just this information by going to http://www.forexproject.com/forex_volume

In the upcoming weeks, I am going to start providing data and graphs for all 3 groups of traders.  I just have to put my programming hat on and find the time to do it.