Most global traders know the CFTC's Commitments of Traders report. Far fewer know that Japan Exchange Group (JPX) publishes something arguably richer for Nikkei 225 futures: weekly open interest by named trading participant — Nomura, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley MUFG, SMBC Nikko and others, each with their net long/short position.
The CFTC aggregates traders into anonymous categories. JPX names the firms. This page explains what the data is, how to read it correctly, and — importantly — the mistake that makes it useless if you get it wrong.
Both are free and official. Neither has a direct equivalent in US markets.
The obvious reading — "Firm X is net short, so foreign institutions are bearish" — does not work. Here is what our own dataset shows.
We aggregated 52 weeks of participant open interest in Nikkei 225 futures (August 2025 to July 2026) and measured how often each firm's net position kept the same sign:
| Participant | Average net | Same sign |
|---|---|---|
| HSBC | −31,604 contracts | 52 of 52 weeks short |
| SMBC Nikko | +4,927 | 52 of 52 weeks long |
| Morgan Stanley MUFG | −14,029 | 98% short |
| Nomura | +18,065 | 92% long |
| Société Générale | +19,106 | 90% long |
The Nikkei moved substantially in both directions over this period. These firms did not change sides. If you had read HSBC's short as a bearish signal, you would have been bearish every single week for a year.
The reason is structural, not directional. A clearing firm's position reflects hedges against structured products it has issued, the other side of client flow, index arbitrage against cash equities, and market-making inventory. These generate persistent one-way positions regardless of any house view.
Compare each firm against its own normal, not against zero.
If HSBC's baseline is −31,604 and this week reads −5,000, the firm has effectively covered a large short even though the sign is still negative. The same logic applies to daily volume: 50,000 contracts means nothing for a firm that always trades 50,000, but means a great deal for one that usually trades 10,000.
Nikkei 225 futures come in large (¥1,000 multiplier) and mini (¥100). The participant mix differs: large contracts are dominated by foreign institutions, while mini rankings include Japanese online brokers (SBI, Rakuten, Matsui) — that is, domestic retail. When the two disagree, professionals and retail are positioned differently.
On our main dashboard we chart each major participant's weekly net position over the past year with the Nikkei 225 overlaid, and publish the daily volume rankings for both large and mini contracts every business day, sourced entirely from JPX.
Japanese equity flows are dominated by foreign investors, and futures positioning gives a faster read than cash-market statistics. Combined with options open interest ("walls"), estimated gamma exposure, and the CME's Nikkei COT data, it forms a positioning picture that is difficult to assemble in English anywhere else.
Just remember what the data is not: it contains no direction for volume, no separation of house and client, and no proprietary view. It is a flow fingerprint, not a forecast.