* Short play in July contract comes to an end
* Players get out of July before deliveries on Monday

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - Cotton futures closed sharply
lower Wednesday on investor liquidation as the market fell back
from the one-month high it hit in the previous session as the
short play in the July contract appears to have come to an end,
brokers said.
The spot July cotton contract on the ICE Futures U.S.
exchange dropped 4.81 cents, or 5.4 percent, to end at 83.17
cents per lb, moving from 82.98 to 89.48 cents.
On Tuesday, the contract rose the 5.00 cent daily limit to
settle at 87.98 cents in the highest close for the spot contract
since the middle of May, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Key December fell 1.72 cents, or 2.3 percent, to
finish at 72.71 cents per lb, dealing from 71.06 to 74.50 cents.
Volume traded on Wednesday stood near 28,100 lots, some 15
percent above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
"I think the short play (in July) is over," said Jobe Moss,
an analyst for merchants and brokers MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas.
Speculators finally managed to liquidate a substantial
portion of their positions in July, coming as it did a few days
before the contract goes into delivery on Monday, dealers said.
Investors are getting out because it would be very difficult
for them to get their hands on cotton they can deliver against
the board because most U.S. fiber has already been harvested and
sold, they said.
Under exchange rules, only U.S. cotton is deliverable at the
exchange.
The market will now be looking toward the weekly export
sales report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if
further sales to China are posted in the government data.
Tuesday's estimated volume was at 55,893 lots, the highest
level since June 11, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.
Open interest in the cotton market, an indicator of investor
exposure, fell for the fourth session running and amounted to
180,227 lots as of June 19, the lowest since March 9, the
exchange data said.