The rules
- Open interest (OI): the value of all open positions in the contract, in US dollars, from Gate.io’s hourly contract statistics (the latest reading). FreeCharting’s open-interest pane uses the same data.
- OI 1h, 4h, 24h, 3d, 7d: the change in open interest against the reading that many hours earlier.
- Reading: open interest and price over 24 hours together. Both up: new longs. OI up, price down: new shorts. OI down, price up: short covering. Both down: long unwinding. Moves under 1% count as flat.
- OI at a 7-day high: the latest reading is the highest of the last 7 days. Volume / OI: 24-hour volume divided by open interest.
- Presets other than Largest open interest leave out contracts with less than $5M of 24-hour volume.
About this setup
- What it is
- Open interest counts the futures positions that are still open. It rises when new positions are opened and falls when they are closed, so it shows whether money is flowing into a market or out of it.
- How traders use it
- Traders read rising open interest with rising prices as new buyers backing the move, rising open interest with falling prices as new shorts, and falling open interest as positions closing. A jump in open interest ahead of a big move can mean a crowded trade.
- Caveats
- Open interest doesn’t say who is long or short, only how many positions exist. The figures come from one exchange, Gate.io, and change every hour.
Frequently asked questions
Why Gate.io?
Its public API gives an hourly open-interest history for every perpetual with no key, and browsers can read it directly, so the screener works for everyone.
Why does open interest differ between sites?
Each exchange has its own open interest. This page shows Gate.io’s USDT-margined perpetuals; sites that add up many exchanges show larger totals.