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. Average cotton daily volume is about 30,000 contracts.  Through Thursday, August 6, ICE cotton futures saw above  average volumes between 46,070 contracts (on August 10) and 56,288 contracts (on August 13). The most active Dec’26 and Mar’27 contracts had 57% and 26% of the volume, respectively, as of August 13.

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 Dec’26 and Mar’27 contracts had 56% and 23%, respectively, of the open interest as of August 13.  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, August 13, the daily shifts in ICE cotton open interest were increasing.  However, the correspondingly mixed daily price settlements give no clear signal about this week’s speculative positioning.