How to read FII and DII positions in NSE participant-wise open interest

Every trading day, after the close, NSE publishes a report called participant-wise open interest. It shows how many futures and options contracts are held by four groups of participants. This guide explains what is in it and how to read it carefully.

The four groups

• Client: individual and other non-institutional traders.
• DII: domestic institutions such as mutual funds and insurers.
• FII: foreign institutional investors.
• Pro: proprietary traders, which are firms trading their own money.

What the report contains

For each group, the file gives open contracts, both long and short, in index futures, stock futures, index options (calls and puts) and stock options. These are contracts still open at the end of the day.

Net position and long share

The net position is long contracts minus short contracts. A positive net means the group holds more long contracts than short ones. The long share is long contracts as a percentage of long plus short contracts. For example, 40,000 long and 60,000 short gives a net of minus 20,000 and a long share of 40%.

Reading it day to day

The level matters, but the change from the previous session often says more. A group that moved from net short 2,00,000 to net short 1,50,000 has reduced its short position by 50,000 contracts, even though it is still net short.

What this is not

• It is open interest in contracts, not rupees. It is not the "FII buying and selling" in crores that you see in the cash market data.
• A net short in index futures by FIIs is not automatically bearish. FIIs often use index futures to hedge a large stock portfolio, so shorts may offset shares they hold.
• Index options positions can be spreads, so the net position of calls and puts can mislead if you read one leg alone.
• The data is for one day, published after the close.

A sensible approach

Look at index futures first, then options, and compare with the last few sessions. Remember that every long has a short on the other side: when FIIs are net short, someone else is net long.

Tradingraph shows the long share and net contracts for index futures, with the change from the previous session, using the NSE participant file.

This page is for information and education only and is not trading advice.