The nearest expiration date for Lithium futures (Jan 2025) is Feb 4, 2025.
Traders prefer to sell futures contracts when they've already made money on the investment, but still have plenty of time left before the expiration date. Thus, many consider it a good option to sell Lithium futures (Jan 2025) before Feb 4, 2025.
Open interest is the number of contracts held by traders in active positions — they're not closed or expired. For Lithium futures (Jan 2025) this number is 3.99 K. You can use it to track a prevailing market trend and adjust your own strategy: declining open interest for Lithium futures (Jan 2025) shows that traders are closing their positions, which means a weakening trend.