Forward sales have become an important institutional structure in cotton export marketing. The calculation of "outstanding export sales" (sales which are contracted for later delivery) allows for a distinction between export sales and export shipments of cotton fiber. The temporal relationship between these two variables is analyzed institutionally and econometrically. The econometric results reveal the existence of quarter-specific temporal patterns between cotton export sales and export shipments. This information can be beneficial to cotton export merchants and shippers as well as those individuals (both public and private sector) who need to predict season-ending export shipment levels at any point in the marketing year.