The cocoa futures market recently rolled from the July to the September series of futures on the Intercontinental Exchange. The roll period can cause increased price variance as longs and shorts decide whether to carry their risk positions into the next active contract or exit the market.
The open interest metric measures the total number of open long and short positions in a futures market. When it rises, the number of speculative and hedge positions is increasing, and when it falls, participants are exiting a market. In the cocoa futures market, open interest during the