The nearest expiration date for Crude Oil Futures (Jan 2027) is Dec 21, 2026.
The best time to sell a futures contract is when you've already made money on the investment, but still have plenty of time left before the expiration date. Thus, a good option would be to sell Crude Oil Futures (Jan 2027) before Dec 21, 2026.
Open interest is the number of contracts held by traders in active positions — they're not closed or expired. For Crude Oil Futures (Jan 2027) this number is 1.97 K. You can use it to track a prevailing market trend and adjust your own strategy: declining open interest for Crude Oil Futures (Jan 2027) shows that traders are closing their positions, which means a weakening trend.