Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | Here are three versions of the data published by the CFTC. I would be very interested to learn how to compare them and what they are telling us, each individually and collectively.
My limited comparison of the futures only and futures & options reports indicate that the option cause the data to fluctuate, sometimes widely for reasons unrelated to the basic price (see graph of the ratios between futures and futures and options for 2010 corn below). For instance it is common to see options increase just before a report is issued then decline abruptly afterward. Options also increase dramatically as index managers re-allocate their portfolios. Granted it is important to be aware of these situations but I think they obscure the underlying picture.
I'm sure there are valuable insights to be gained from all three reports but it will take someone more knowledgeable than me to interpret them.
 (COT & CIT compared-page-001.jpg)
 (ratio of combined fut&opt to fut only 2010 corn-page-001.jpg)
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 COT & CIT compared-page-001.jpg (76KB - 38 downloads)
ratio of combined fut&opt to fut only 2010 corn-page-001.jpg (80KB - 29 downloads)
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Updated COT corn
