In an April 26 Barchart article, “How is the New Physical Lumber Contract Doing,” I highlighted the total number of open long and short positions, or open interest, in the old random-length contract and the physical contract replacement. On April 25, open interest in the new physical lumber futures contract stood at 3,794 contracts, and the metric in the random length futures had declined to 708 contracts.
Since then, the old 110,000 board feet contract disappeared, while the open interest in the physical lumber futures has increased. Meanwhile, the price action has been sleepy, with physical lumber futures hovering around $500 per 1,000 board feet.
