Chapter 04 · Section 4.1

Open Interest- Definition 2

The definition of open interest is the number of contracts outstanding at a specified point in time. What does that mean more precisely?

a) The total of open positions.
No. (a) is not correct. There are two kinds of open positions: long and short. For one contract outstanding there are one long and one short position. If they are added up the result will be twice as much as open interest.
b) The total of long positions.
c) The total of short positions.
d) b and c