Open interest is the number of unsettled or outstanding contracts of a particular derivative instrument. It is a metric or data point that helps gauge the traders’ participation in an underlying. Rising Open Interest points to a rise in the trading interest in the underlying. This rise could be a result of rising in trading positions by a variety of trading participants. The participant may be retail or institutional. High open interest means that there is a large number of derivative contracts still open, which means market participants are active in that asset. In the case of futures, if prices rise up and open interest also increases, it suggests that new participants are entering the market despite rising prices, implying an upward or bullish bias.