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, November 20, ICE cotton futures showed above  average volumes between 35,679 contracts (on November 20) and 97,819 contracts (on November 14. The Mar’26 and May’26 contracts had 60% and 16% of the volume, respectively, as of November 20.

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 Mar’26 and May’26 contracts had 64%, and 15% of the open interest, respectively, as of November 20.  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, November 20, the shifts in ICE cotton open interest steadily decreased compared to the previous session.  This, and the mostly lower price settlements, gave the appearance of long liquidation.