10.10 MCX: contracts, options and hours

Motivation

The theory above is global; the contract you trade is MCX's. Contract terms decide your rupee P&L per tick, your margin, and whether you are at risk of being handed a kilogram of gold.

10.10.1Contract specifications#

A warning on sources MCX's website refused automated access when this course was written (last tried 6 Nov 2026). The table below restates the MCX contract specifications as published in a secondary compilation dated 25 Oct 2026; it has not been checked line by line against the exchange's specification pages. Verify every row with the exchange, on https://www.mcxindia.com/products and the MCX circulars page, before trading. 10.14–10.15 treat costs, tax, margins, the evening session and the tender period in detail.

Contract	Symbol	Lot	Quote	Tick	₹ per tick	Notes
Gold	GOLD	1 kg	₹/10 g	₹1	₹100	995 fineness
Gold Mini	GOLDM	100 g	₹/10 g	₹1	₹10
Gold Ten	GOLDTEN	10 g	₹/10 g	₹1	₹1	launched 1 Apr 2025; 999 fineness
Gold Guinea	GOLDGUINEA	8 g	₹/8 g	₹1	₹1
Gold Petal	GOLDPETAL	1 g	₹/1 g	₹1	₹1	one source says tick ₹0.50: unresolved
Silver	SILVER	30 kg	₹/kg	₹1	₹30
Silver Mini	SILVERM	5 kg	₹/kg	₹1	₹5
Silver Micro	SILVERMIC	1 kg	₹/kg	₹1	₹1
Silver 100	SILVER100	100 g	₹/10 g	₹1	₹10
Crude Oil	CRUDEOIL	100 bbl	₹/bbl	₹1	₹100	cash-settled on NYMEX WTI
Crude Oil Mini	CRUDEOILM	10 bbl	₹/bbl	₹1	₹10	listed: relaunched at 10 bbl in March 2023 (facts `mcx-crudeoilm-listing`, secondary); traded in Playbook 15.11
Natural Gas	NATURALGAS	1,250 mmBtu	₹/mmBtu	₹0.10	₹125
Natural Gas Mini	NATGASMINI	250 mmBtu	₹/mmBtu	₹0.10	₹25
Copper	COPPER	2,500 kg	₹/kg	₹0.05	₹125

₹ per tick = lot in quote units × tick. For GOLD: 1 kg = 100 × 10 g, so a ₹1 move per 10 g is ₹100 per lot. At ₹1,38,839/10 g one GOLD lot has a notional of ₹1.39 crore.

10.10.2Expiry and delivery#

Expiry and delivery (secondary sources).

Bullion futures expire around the 5th of the contract month. They are staggered-delivery contracts with a tender period before expiry, during which open long positions can be assigned physical delivery. Secondary sources differ on its length (the last 3 trading days in one; about 5 days in expiry notices for the February, April and June 2026 contracts in another); the contract's own specification on mcxindia.com is authoritative. Retail traders who cannot take delivery must square off before it starts. SEBI's floor for the staggered-delivery period is three working days (circular SEBI/HO/MRD/MRD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2024/57 of 24 May 2024); 10.15 gives the exit rule.
Silver Mini and Silver Micro are reported to expire on the last business day of the contract month (secondary; check the contract specification).
Crude futures expire around the 19th/20th of each month, ahead of NYMEX WTI expiry, and are cash-settled. In April 2020 MCX confirmed that the final settlement price is the NYMEX WTI front-month settlement converted at the RBI reference rate (Business Standard, 21–22 Apr 2020; 10.11.1). Check whether the methodology has changed since.

10.10.3Options on futures#

Options on futures MCX lists options on Gold, Gold Mini, Silver, Silver Mini, Crude, Crude Mini, Natural Gas, NG Mini, Copper and Zinc futures (secondary summary; verify with the exchange). The option's lot equals the underlying future's. In-the-money options devolve into futures positions at expiry, which then need full futures margin; option expiry is set before the futures tender period. They are European-style on a futures underlying, so M08's Black-76 applies:

\begin{gathered} c = e^{-rT}\big[F N(d_1) - K N(d_2)\big],\qquad p = e^{-rT}\big[K N(-d_2) - F N(-d_1)\big], \\ d_{1,2} = \frac{\ln(F/K) \pm \tfrac12\sigma^2T}{\sigma\sqrt T}. \end{gathered} \tag{10.21}

(Check value from M08: $F = K = 20$ , $r = 9\%$ , $\sigma = 25\%$ , $T = 4/12$ gives a put of 1.116641; Hull prints 1.12.)

Worked example

MCX GOLD Dec-26 future at ₹1,38,839, strike ₹1,39,000, 20 days to option expiry, $r = 5.5\%$ , and an assumed implied volatility of 22% (look up the actual MCX implied volatility; this number is for illustration). Then $\sigma\sqrt T = 0.22\sqrt{20/365} = 0.0515$ , $d_1 = [\ln(138839/139000) + 0.5 \times 0.0515^2 \times 1]/0.0515 \approx 0.0032$ , $d_2 \approx -0.0483$ . The call is ₹2,765.6 and the put ₹2,926.1 per 10 g; put–call parity holds: $c - p = e^{-rT}(F - K) = -\text{₹}160.5$ . The call's futures delta is $e^{-rT}N(d_1) = 0.500$ . One lot covers 1 kg, i.e. 100 quote units, so the premium is ₹2,76,563 per lot and the delta exposure is about 0.5 kg of gold.

10.10.4Trading hours and margins#

Trading hours (IST) 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM during US daylight saving time (9 Mar–30 Oct 2026); 9:00 AM to 11:55 PM from 2 Nov 2026 (US winter time). Agricultural contracts close earlier. (Secondary notices; verify with the exchange.) The late session exists because MCX prices follow COMEX and NYMEX, and the US data releases (CPI, payrolls, EIA) fall in the Indian evening.

Margins MCX Clearing Corporation sets SPAN plus exposure margins as a percentage of contract value, and raises them in volatile periods. CME raised COMEX silver margins from 11% to 15% in January 2026 (secondary). A margin increase during a fall forces leveraged longs to sell into the fall. Treat margin as a variable, not a constant (M03 on ruin).