Open Interest (OI) is a number that tells you how many futures (or options) contracts are currently outstanding (open) in the market. In the context of an options chain, Open Interest means the interest of traders during a specific strike price. The higher the amount, the more interest there will be among the traders for the actual strike price of an option. Since theres more interest among traders, there will be high liquidity to trade your opinion. Open Interest refers to the number of active options contracts that are held by traders and investors. These are positions that havent been closed out by an offsetting trade or an exercise or assignment. Its one of the data fields on most option quote displays, along with bid price, ask price, volume, and implied volatility. Open interest measures money flow into or out of a futures or options market. Increasing open interest represents new or additional money coming into the market, while decreasing open interest indicates money flowing out of the market.