But the bulls were reluctant to push futures prices too high with a hearty new West African harvest readying for export, they said.
The New York Board of Trade's active December cocoa contract rose just $1 to end at $1,369 a tonne, after trading from $1,357 to $1,378.
March advanced $2 to $1,409, and back month cocoa futures likewise gained $2 in an otherwise quiet trading session.
"There have been some switches but I don't think the market is going to move all that much," said a trader, pointing out a fairly even balance between non-commercial short and long positions.
The open interest in the December contract, which has its first notice day for delivery on November 15, fell 649 contracts on Tuesday to 57,433 lots.
Futures trading volume was thin, with one market source estimating turnover at 6,125 contracts. That compared with Tuesday's official tally of 7,079 lots, also considered thin.
In London, the Liffe's benchmark December cocoa delivery settled at 814 pounds a tonne, down 0.6 percent. Traders said a weaker dollar versus sterling fuelled light arbitrage-related buying here.
Meanwhile, cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's port of San Pedro reached 60,302 tonnes by October 23, almost double the 34,146 tonnes delivered to the port during the same period of the 2004/05 season, according to data from the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC).
Data for the port of Abidjan in the world's top cocoa growing country were not immediately available.
Ivory Coast cocoa farmers said timely rains had benefited the start of the 2005/06 harvest, but more fertiliser and insecticide - products which they say remain out of their reach because of low cocoa prices - were needed most to boost output.