The current allocation of volume, open interest, and a lot more cotton futures information, can be found on the ICE futures website under “Featured Reports”.  Volume (viewed above as the green line) is defined as the total daily number of contracts traded in a daily session. The level of volume is often used to gauge the strength of continuing or changing trends. Typical cotton daily volume bounces around between 10,000 and 25,000 contracts.  Through Thursday, April 23, ICE cotton futures saw above  average volumes between 60,801 contracts (on April 20) and 104,344 contracts (on April 17). The most active Jul’26 and Dec’26 contracts had 56% and 29% of the volume, respectively, as of April 23.

Open interest (the red line above) refers to the number of active positions at the end of the day (not double counting both the buyer and seller). Open interest by contract has a similar front month concentration as does volume, e.g., the most active Jul’26 and Dec’26 contracts had 50%, and 34% of the open interest, respectively, as of April 23.  Open interest does not fluctuate as much as daily volume, but there are patterns where sharp surges or declines in open interest are associated with sudden rallies or sell-offs, often in high volume. Through Thursday, April 23, the shifts in ICE cotton open interest were mostly lower from the previous day .