What does the stock market term 'open interest' mean?

Answer 1

Technicians in the financial markets us a multidimensional approch to market analsyis. By tracking the movement of three sets of figures- price, volume, and open interest. Open interest primarily applys to future markets. The total number of outstanding or unliquidated contracts at the end of the day is open interest. Remember that offical volume and open interest figures are reported a day late in the futures makets and are, there for, plotted with a one day lag. open interest represents the total number of outstanding longs or shorts in the market, NOT!! the sum of both. Open interest is the number of contracts. A contrat must both have a buyer and a seller. There for, two market participants-a buyer and a seller- combine to create one contract. Open interest fugures is reported each day is followed by either a positive or negative number showing the increase or decrease in the number of contracts for that day. Its those changes in open interest levels either up or down, that give clues as to the changing charactor of market participation and gives open interest its forcasting value.

Rissa