Traders Window
What is open interest, and how do you read it with price?
Open interest counts the futures positions that are still open. Read together with price, it tells you whether a move is powered by new money or by traders heading for the exit.
Open interest is not volume
Volume counts every contract that changed hands. Open interest counts the contracts that are still open at a given moment. Every contract has a buyer and a seller, so open interest is not “how many longs” or “how many shorts”; it's how much leveraged exposure exists in total.
- When a new buyer and a new seller open positions, open interest rises.
- When both sides close, it falls.
- When a position simply changes hands, it stays the same.
The four combinations
| Price | Open interest | Usual reading |
|---|---|---|
| Up | Up | New longs are opening. The move has fuel, and new leverage to unwind if it turns. |
| Down | Up | New shorts are opening. Active selling, with the risk of a squeeze if price turns up. |
| Up | Down | Shorts are closing or being liquidated: a squeeze rather than fresh buying. |
| Down | Down | Longs are closing or being liquidated: leverage leaving the market. |
These are tendencies, not rules. Open interest changes can come from hedging or arbitrage that has nothing to do with direction, so read them together with funding and liquidations.
Why the time window matters
Open interest drifts slowly most of the time. A change of a few percent within an hour on a large coin is significant, because it means a lot of leverage moved in a short time. That's why Traders Window looks at the last hour rather than the day.
Open interest in Traders Window
OI under each coin is the change in open interest over the last hour. When it moves by more than 1.5%, a badge names the combination: NEW LONGS, NEW SHORTS, SQUEEZE or LONGS OUT. Click the badge in the app for the explanation.
For information only, not financial advice.