Open interest without shortcuts
Reconstruct contract changes, normalise reporting conventions and test what open interest can really tell you about positioning.
What you will practise
Explain an OI change without confusing activity, valuation, trader identity or directional exposure.
Before you start
- Know long, short, notional and collateral.
- Complete Risk and execution before turning an OI observation into a trade plan.
Course outline
- 1
Reconstruct open interest from opening and closing trades
Use a contract ledger to separate new positions, closures and transfers. Understand why high trading volume can leave open interest unchanged.
7 min - 2
Read the price–open interest matrix as competing hypotheses
Analyse four price/OI combinations without assigning hidden trader motives. Add flow, time alignment and an explicit condition that would reject the idea.
7 min - 3
Normalise open interest: contracts, coins and dollars
Decompose notional growth into price and quantity changes. Check multipliers and single-sided reporting before aggregating open interest across exchanges.
8 min - 4
Build an open interest profile and state its limits
Allocate observed OI additions to price buckets, keep closures explicit and distinguish an estimated activity profile from a ledger of surviving entries.
8 min - 5
Test a trapped-trader hypothesis without inventing positions
Use a range, normalised OI and price response to frame a possible trapped cohort. Distinguish supporting evidence from proof of entries, stops or leverage.
8 min
Educational material. Examples do not establish a profitable strategy. Trading costs, gaps and liquidation can produce losses beyond a planned stop.