About

A receipt, not a burger.

Cotton Index asks what the Big Mac Index asks, of a different standardized object: a base-grade ICE bale of cotton. Strict Low Middling, one and one-sixteenth inches, color 41, leaf 4 — the grade written on every Cotton No. 2 warehouse receipt. 41 mill and gin markets, one numeraire in New York.

The joke still works. If a bale costs more in dollars in Izmir than it does in Memphis, something is expensive: the lira, the duty, the inland freight, or the cotton itself. We print the number and the note. You decide which.

Survey week of 11 September 2026. Dec 2026 at the nearby. Live rates swap in a delayed CT=F last and today's dollar crosses; mill quotes stay frozen. Not affiliated with ICE Futures U.S., USDA, Cotlook, or any mill. Not investment advice.

The mill desk behind the receipt is The Cotton Wire.

Methodology · Data · Subscribe