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Aggregated Open Interest: how to read it

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Open interest is the total dollar value of futures positions that are still open.Chart Beyond adds up to 13 exchanges into one line, so you see the market, not one venue.

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BTCUSDT1hOpen Interest
BTCUSDT 1-hour chart with pooled open interest from 13 exchanges as an amber line in its own pane under the price candles, with divergence marks between two highs
BTC, price and pooled open interest ยท Example view

How to read it

BTCUSDT1hOpen Interest
BTCUSDT 1-hour chart with pooled open interest from 13 exchanges as an amber line in its own pane under the price candles, with divergence marks between two highs
APrice candlesBPooled open interest (amber line)CDivergence between two highsD13 exchanges in one line

  1. Look at the amber line

    It is open interest from all 13 exchanges added together. A rising line means more positions opened than closed. A falling line means more closed than opened.

  2. Read it against price

    Price up and open interest up: new positions are coming in with the move. Price up and open interest down: the move is mostly positions being closed.

  3. Watch the divergence marks

    When price makes a higher high and open interest makes a lower high, the pane marks it. At lows it is the mirror: price makes a lower low while open interest makes a higher low.

  4. Use the OI Profile

    It shows at which prices open interest was added or closed over a day, week or month: added on the right in green, closed on the left in red. The amber POC line marks the price where the most open interest was added and is still held.

Worked example

Example numbers, rounded

BTC rises from 78,000 to 80,000 while pooled open interest climbs from $20.0B to $21.4B. That means the rise came with new positions opening, not only old ones closing. A week later price makes a higher high but open interest makes a lower high, and the divergence mark shows it. This shows how participation changed, not where price goes from here.

Common mistakes

  • Reading it as direction. Open interest counts open positions. It does not tell you whether they are long or short.
  • Watching one exchange. One venue can move differently from the 13-exchange total.
  • Confusing it with volume. Volume is what traded. Open interest is what stays open.
  • Reading one candle. Look at the change over several candles.

Where the data comes from

  • 13 exchanges added into one line: Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Hyperliquid, Gate, MEXC, Kraken, KuCoin, WhiteBIT, dYdX, Aster and BingX.
  • Every exchange is recorded once a minute, and the chart shows 1-minute open interest in US dollars. The pooled file is saved every five minutes, so the newest minutes arrive in five-minute steps.
  • Pooled data covers 101 coins, BTC and ETH included. Other coins show Binance alone, and the chart labels it "Binance".

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