gene arensberg discusses the commitment of traders and the new cftc reporting:

With the new CFTC reporting, there is even more data to crunch, with perhaps a bit more transparency. We’ll be reporting more about that in the coming weeks and months, but for now we thought readers might be interested to see graphically just how much information is available in the new COT reports.

Below is just a very small sample of what an experienced trader might look at using just one series of the CFTC’s new “disaggregated” COT reports. Please note that all of the charts below are from just one market -- silver.

Before we begin, just a quick word about the simple chart template. It is a standard two-axis comparison chart found in most spreadsheet software. We use the cash market closing data for silver in all the charts for comparison. We are using the CFTC data raw, with no adjustments, however in some cases net positions are calculated using the gross long and short positions with spreads ignored.

First , how about something simple to get used to the graph template. Let’s compare silver with the COMEX silver open interest. Remember each open contract is a promise to deliver 5,000 ounces of silver at a future date and price certain.

Can we see a correlation? Yes, clearly the open interest tends to rise as the price of silver rises and vice versa. We still don’t have a good explanation for the big drop in open interest in April of 2008 although some analysts have tied it to the Lehman or Bear Stearns “take-unders.”

http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2010/Jan/5/Got-Gold-Report--New-CFTC-data-for-silver,-interes