FII Long Short Ratio: How to Read FII Index Futures Positions

The FII long short ratio compares how many index futures contracts foreign institutional investors hold long with how many they hold short. The exchange publishes the underlying numbers every evening in its participant-wise open interest report, and traders quote the result in two ways: as a ratio of longs to shorts, or as the percentage of FII index futures on the long side. On 5 October 2026 it read 0.09 to 1, or 8 percent long and 92 percent short. This guide explains where the FII long short ratio comes from, how it is calculated, what a reading like 8 percent means, why it has stayed low for most of 2026, and why the day’s change usually says more than the level.

Where the FII long short ratio comes from

After each session the exchange releases a participant-wise open interest file among its derivatives reports. It splits every open futures and options contract by who holds it, in four groups: foreign institutional investors (FII), domestic institutional investors (DII), proprietary traders of brokers (Pro), and clients, which covers everyone else, from individuals to corporates. For each group it lists long and short contracts in index futures, stock futures, index calls and puts, and stock calls and puts.

The FII long short ratio uses the index futures line: FII long contracts against FII short contracts. A few details matter. The figures are numbers of contracts, not rupee values. They cover all index futures together, NIFTY, Bank Nifty and the rest, and all expiries. And they describe the position at the close, so the ratio changes once a day, in the evening.

How the FII long short ratio is calculated

Three numbers come out of the same two inputs. Here they are for 5 October 2026:

The long share is the version most people mean by “FII long short position percentage”. The ratio form says the same thing differently: for every short contract, FIIs held 0.09 long. The net position adds the scale the percentages hide. The day’s change compares today’s net with the previous session’s: on 1 October the net was −3,10,174, so the 5 October net of −3,02,391 was 7,783 contracts less short.

What the levels mean

Fifty percent is balance: as many longs as shorts. Below fifty, FIIs are net short index futures; above, net long. The OIData history of this series runs from 25 April 2025, 358 sessions to 5 October 2026, and in that window the long share ranged from 6.0 percent on 30 September 2025 to 52.2 percent on 8 May 2025.

The useful context is that 2026 has been a low year throughout. Of 186 sessions in 2026, the long share was below 15 percent on 142 and below 10 percent on 47; its median was 12.1 percent, and it rose above 20 percent on only 23 days, peaking at 29.2 percent on 23 February. Readings around 8 percent appeared in January, June, July and again at the start of October. So a single 8 percent reading is at the low end of the year, but it is not rare in this period, and the FII long short ratio by itself says less than it seems to.

Why FIIs can be heavily short without betting on a fall

Index futures shorts are not only bets that the market will fall. Three other things put FIIs on the short side:

• Hedges. Foreign institutions own large portfolios of Indian shares. Selling index futures against them reduces the portfolio’s market risk without selling the shares, so a big short can sit beside a big long stock book.
• Arbitrage. Buying shares and selling the matching futures earns the gap between the two, the cost of carry, until expiry. That trade shows up as a futures short. The cost of carry guide explains the gap.
• Option books. A futures position can be the hedge for an options position, so the futures line alone shows one leg of a larger trade.

That is why the FII long short ratio is better read as a picture of how FIIs are positioned and hedged than as a forecast. Very one-sided positioning is sometimes described as fuel for a short-covering rally, since shorts must eventually be bought back; it can equally be a hedge that stays in place for months. The ratio does not say which.

Why the change says more than the level

A level that has been low for most of a year carries little news on any given day. The change does. A net position that becomes several thousand contracts more short on a falling day is fresh short selling. A net that becomes less short, as on 5 October, says FIIs covered some shorts or added some longs. A run of such changes in one direction over several sessions says more than any one day.

One caution about the calendar: on the monthly expiry, the expiring futures disappear from the report and the totals jump for mechanical reasons. On 28 September 2026, the day before the September monthly expiry, FIIs held 51,567 long and 3,71,236 short contracts, a long share of 12.2 percent. On 29 September, the expiry, the figures were 27,879 and 2,95,186, a long share of 8.6 percent. Part of that fall was positions expiring or being rolled rather than a change of view, so the first sessions after a monthly expiry deserve a second look before reading anything into them.

Reading it alongside Pros, Clients and DIIs

Every futures contract has a buyer and a seller, so the four groups’ longs and shorts add up to the same total. On 5 October 2026 both sides came to 4,33,013 index futures contracts. FIIs’ net short of 3.02 lakh contracts was matched by net longs elsewhere: Clients 2.42 lakh, DIIs 0.33 lakh and Pros 0.28 lakh. When FIIs are heavily short, someone is heavily long, and in 2026 that has been Clients: they were net long index futures on all 186 sessions of the year and the largest net long on 183 of them. The participant-wise open interest guide explains the four groups.

Index options complete the picture. The same report shows FIIs on 5 October as net writers of about 3.66 lakh index calls and net holders of about 5.88 lakh index puts: an options book leaning the same way as the futures. The call writing and put writing guide explains how to read those net positions.

A worked reading

On 5 October 2026 the FII long short ratio was 0.09 to 1, with 8 percent of FII index futures long and a net position of −3.02 lakh contracts. Against the year, that is near the bottom of a range that has mostly sat between 8 and 15 percent. The day’s change was +7,783, a small amount of covering. Clients held the matching longs, and FIIs’ options book, short calls and long puts, leaned the same way as their futures. Put together: FIIs were positioned defensively and stayed so, with a slight easing that day. That is a description of positioning; it does not say which way the index will move next.

Where to read the FII long short ratio in OIData

The FII / DII page has two tabs. Futures and Options opens on the FII Index Futures Positioning card, with the long share, the net position, the long-to-short ratio, the change from the previous session and a sentiment badge; the arrows beside the date step through past trading days. Under it are cards for FII, Pro, Client and DII, the index options table with each group’s net calls and puts, and a Net OI Trend chart that draws any participant in any segment across past sessions. The Cash Market tab shows what FIIs and DIIs bought and sold in shares, explained in the FII and DII data guide. The Dashboard shows FII index futures in its live stage, and the Market Mood Index uses FII positioning as one of its seven inputs.

FII long short ratio FAQ

What is the FII long short ratio? The number of index futures contracts foreign institutions hold long divided by the number they hold short, from the exchange’s participant-wise open interest report. It is often quoted as the percentage of their index futures that are long.

How is it calculated? Long share is long contracts divided by long plus short. The ratio is long divided by short. On 5 October 2026: 29,117 long and 3,31,508 short, so 8.1 percent long and a ratio of 0.09 to 1.

When is FII long short data updated? Once a day, after the market closes, when the exchange publishes the participant-wise file, usually in the evening.

Is a low FII long short ratio bearish? It means FIIs are net short index futures, which is often a hedge for the shares they own. In 2026 the long share has mostly been between 8 and 15 percent, so a low reading alone is weak information. Watch the change and the other participants.

Does it predict where NIFTY will go? No. It describes how one group is positioned. Large one-sided positions can unwind sharply, but the ratio does not say when, or in which direction the next move will come.

Takeaways

• The FII long short ratio is FII index futures longs against shorts, published daily in the participant-wise open interest report.
• On 5 October 2026: 8 percent long, 0.09 to 1, a net short of 3.02 lakh contracts, 7,783 contracts less short than the session before.
• In 2026 the long share was below 15 percent on 142 of 186 sessions, so low readings are the norm this year, not an alarm.
• Many FII shorts are hedges or arbitrage, not bets on a fall.
• The day’s change, the monthly expiry and the other participants’ positions say more than the level alone.