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.  During fund rolling periods, like the week ending June 12, volumes are usually higher.  Through Thursday, June 12, ICE cotton futures showed above average volumes between 65,004 contracts (on June 6) and 99,170 contracts (on June 10).  The Jul’25 and Dec’25 contracts had 41% and 49% of the volume, respectively, as of June 12.

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 Jul’25 and Dec’25 contracts had 18%, and 63% of the open interest, respectively, as of June 12.  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 June 12 the day-to-day shifts in ICE cotton open interest were declining over the first half and increasing over the second half.