Open Interest

Indian Economy • Financial Markets

Definition: Open Interest (OI) is the total number of outstanding derivative contracts that have not been settled or closed.

Key Pointers

  • Used in futures and options markets.

  • Indicates the number of active contracts.

  • Open Interest increases when a new buyer and new seller enter a contract.

  • Open Interest decreases when both sides close an existing position.

  • It is different from trading volume.

Open Interest

Trading Volume

Outstanding contracts

Contracts traded during a period

Indicates active positions

Indicates trading activity

Cumulative measure

Period-based measure