Source: https://forexiapro.com/cot-report/cot-legacy-vs-disaggregated-vs-tff/

# COT Legacy vs Disaggregated vs TFF: Which Report for Forex?

Dylan Forexia14 November 20268 min read

COT legacy vs disaggregated vs TFF is a question about how the CFTC sorts the same futures market. Each report counts who is long and who is short on a Tuesday, but each puts the traders into different groups. For forex you read legacy or Traders in Financial Futures (TFF). Disaggregated does not cover currencies. We use legacy, and the figures below, from real Tuesdays, show why the three cannot be swapped.

[![COT legacy vs disaggregated vs TFF: three reports that sort one market by three different questions](/seo/cot-legacy-vs-disaggregated-vs-tff/cot-legacy-vs-disaggregated-vs-tff-three-ways-to-sort-diagram.webp)](/seo/cot-legacy-vs-disaggregated-vs-tff/cot-legacy-vs-disaggregated-vs-tff-three-ways-to-sort-diagram.webp)

Diagram: three reports sort one market by three different questions, so their groups do not line up. The real figures are below.

The report counts futures, not spot forex, and it is three days old when it comes out. [What the COT report is in forex](/cot-report/what-is-cot-report-in-forex/) covers that, and the guide to [the Commitment of Traders report](/cot-report/) is the full version. This page is only about which of the three to open.

## What are the COT legacy, disaggregated and TFF reports?

They are three of the four main reports the CFTC publishes, and each one sorts the same market's holders its own way. The fourth, the supplemental report, covers 13 agricultural contracts and does not matter for forex.

What separates them is the question each asks of a trader. Legacy asks whether the futures are used to hedge a business or to bet on price. TFF and disaggregated ask what kind of business the trader runs, so they give a finer picture of who is on each side. They also cover different markets, which is why the first thing to settle is what each one covers. A trader usually meets the choice the first time two pages give different crowds for the same market on the same Friday. Both can be right, because they are counting different groups, and the rest of this page shows it on real figures. The table below puts the three side by side.

| Report | What it covers | How it sorts traders | In plain words |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Legacy | Every market, currencies and gold included | Non-commercial; commercial; nonreportable | Large speculators; hedgers; small traders |
| TFF | Financial futures, currencies included, not gold | Dealer or intermediary; asset manager or institutional; leveraged funds; other reportables | Banks making the market; pension funds, insurers and mutual funds; hedge funds and trading advisers; the rest |
| Disaggregated | Physical commodities, gold included, not currencies | Producer, merchant, processor or user; swap dealers; managed money; other reportables | Businesses hedging real goods; swap desks; commodity funds and trading advisers; the rest |

Two things follow. A currency is in legacy and TFF, so that is where a forex trader chooses. Gold is in legacy and disaggregated and not in TFF, so gold has a different pair to choose between.

The public figures for all three come from the CFTC's feed, which is how our scripts read them: legacy futures only is dataset 6dca-aqww, TFF futures only is gpe5-46if and disaggregated futures only is 72hh-3qpy.

## Which COT report is best for forex?

Neither is better in every way, and the honest answer is a trade. TFF names its groups more exactly, and where it exists it shows more of who is on each side. Legacy has simple groups, covers gold, and its large speculators mean the same thing on every market.

We use legacy's large speculators, the group the report calls non-commercial. That is a choice and not a finding. It lets one rule, one index and one set of lines apply to the seven majors and gold, which the other two cannot do between them. We read TFF beside it as a check on the label, not as a second signal.

Whichever you pick, do not mix them. A rule written on one group does not carry over to another, as the next section shows.

## Why do the groups not line up? The euro on 27 October 2026

Because a trader's label depends on the question the report asks. Here is one Tuesday on one contract, in the futures' own terms, from the CFTC's feed.

| Euro futures, counted Tuesday 27 October 2026 | Group | Net position, contracts |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Legacy | Commercials | +114,484 |
| Legacy | Non-commercials (the large speculators) | −143,894 |
| TFF | Dealers | −138,016 |
| TFF | Leveraged funds | −71,574 |
| TFF | Asset managers | +173,249 |

Commercials and dealers sound like the same people, and they are not. Commercials were net long 114,484 contracts, and dealers were net short 138,016, on the same contract and day. Legacy sorts a trader by whether it hedges, and TFF sorts it by the kind of business. The accounts overlap in places, but you cannot read one group's position as the other's.

The same sum shows what is missing. In legacy the three nets add to zero, because every long has a short. With commercials at +114,484 and non-commercials at −143,894, the small traders, the nonreportable group, were net long 29,410. In TFF the groups add to zero in the same way, so with those three rows the other reportable traders and the small traders together were net long 36,341.

The speculators also come out on different sides depending on who you call one. In TFF the leveraged funds, the hedge funds and trading advisers, were net short 71,574, and the asset managers, the pension funds and insurers, were net long 173,249. Legacy's one speculator group was net short 143,894 and has no such split.

## How does it look on gold? Legacy against disaggregated

On gold the difference is one of width. On the same Tuesday, 27 October 2026, legacy's non-commercials held 223,724 contracts long and 37,273 short. Disaggregated's managed money, the commodity funds and trading advisers, held 122,508 long and 16,946 short. Managed money is a narrower group, so it holds fewer contracts on both sides.

The index shows how far that can matter. The index is where a group's net position, as a share of open interest, sits in its own last 156 weeks, from 0 to 100. Counted on 13 October 2026, legacy's non-commercials were net long 207,879 contracts at an index of 80, which we call crowded. Managed money was net long 107,089 at an index of 58 on the same formula, which we do not. [Our gold COT page](/cot-report/cot-report-gold/) sets the two side by side. Two gold pages can show different crowds on one Friday and both be right about their own group.

## What does TFF add that legacy does not?

It splits the speculators in two, and sometimes the two disagree with the legacy group. Here is the Australian dollar, counted Tuesday 20 October 2026, from the same feed.

| Group | Report | Net position, contracts |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Large speculators (non-commercial) | Legacy | −127,292 |
| Asset managers | TFF | −128,739 |
| Leveraged funds | TFF | +52,497 |
| Dealers | TFF | +60,274 |

Picture a speculator and you probably picture a hedge fund. In TFF the leveraged funds were net long, and the big short sat with the asset managers, who may be hedging something the report cannot show. Legacy hid that, because its one speculative group added both. That is the real advantage of TFF, and it is why we read it beside legacy and do not ignore it. [How to read the COT report](/cot-report/how-to-read-the-cot-report/) works that Tuesday row by row.

The groups can also sit at the opposite end of their own ranges on one day. On 13 October 2026 the euro's dealers in TFF were net short 164,763 contracts and at an index of 100, the least short they had been in three years. An index of 100 is not a long position, and [the COT index](/cot-report/cot-index-meaning/) page explains why.

## Futures only, or futures and options combined?

Each report comes in two forms, and they give different figures. The futures-only form counts futures. The combined form adds options. Pick one and keep to it, because a position in one form is not comparable with the other. Every number on this page, and on the rest of our COT pages, is futures only.

## Which report for which market? A short guide

Here is how we would match them, with the choice we make marked.

- **A currency, one rule across all of them:** legacy. One group, the same meaning on each market. That is what we do.
- **A currency, a closer look at who is on the other side:** TFF, beside legacy. Dealers, leveraged funds and asset managers.
- **Gold, one rule across eight markets:** legacy, so gold matches the currencies.
- **Gold, the commodity funds on their own:** disaggregated's managed money. Never compare it with a legacy week.
- **A cross such as EUR/JPY:** the CFTC does list two at the CME, EUR/JPY and EUR/GBP, but both are thin, and we do not read them.

## What can you not conclude from the choice of report?

That one report is more likely to be right. We have not tested the three against each other. Our own tests of the report used legacy's large speculators and nothing else, and they found that joining a crowded side lost in 12 of 16 years, so the label matters less than the rule built on it. This page compares what the reports say, not which is better.

It does not say who a group is, either. A short can be a hedge as easily as a bet, and the large speculators in legacy are funds and trading firms, not [Dumb Money](/glossary/dumb-money/), our word for the retail herd. At the ends of their own range we read the crowd as the side not to join, which is [Fade the Crowd](/glossary/fade-the-crowd/). That is a reading of where they stand, not of when price turns.

Course 1 of ForexiaPRO, [Reading the Map](/pro), teaches the legacy read step by step in lesson 1.3.4, and members read each week on the [COT Report page](/cotreport).

## Frequently asked questions

### Which COT report is best for forex?

For currencies, the choice is legacy or Traders in Financial Futures (TFF), because the disaggregated report does not cover them. TFF names its groups more precisely. Legacy covers gold as well, which TFF does not, and one of its groups means the same thing on every market. We use legacy's large speculators for that reason, and it is a choice.

### Does the disaggregated COT report include forex?

No. It covers physical commodities, gold included, and not currencies. For a currency future you read legacy or TFF. For gold you can read legacy or disaggregated, and gold is not in TFF.

### Are commercials the same as dealers?

No. Legacy sorts a trader by whether it uses the futures to hedge, and TFF sorts by the kind of business it is. On the euro on 27 October 2026 legacy had commercials net long 114,484 contracts, while TFF had dealers net short 138,016. The two names describe different groups.

### What is the difference between futures only and futures and options combined?

Each report also comes in a futures-only form and a form that adds options. The figures differ, so keep to one. Every number on this page is futures only.

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