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, August 7, ICE cotton futures showed above average volumes between 28,139 contracts (on August 6) and 55,382 contracts (on August 1).  The Dec’25 and Mar’26 contracts had 58% and 27% of the volume, respectively, as of August 7.

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 Dec’25 and Mar’26 contracts had 68%, and 18% of the open interest, respectively, as of August 7.  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.  For the week ending August 7, the day-to-day shifts in ICE cotton open interest started off increasing, then turned mixed.  Daily price settlements were higher early in the week, giving the appearance of more long positioning.