For a long time, we did not allow trading in Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Gold, and Silver options on expiry day. This applied to both standard and Mini contracts.
We restricted this to protect you from the risks of devolvement. However, we know this also limited your flexibility to take advantage of low expiry-day premiums and meant you had to sit out on expiry day.
To address this, we have updated our risk settings. You can now trade expiry-day options for the following commodities on FYERS App, Web, and Trader:
Crude Oil & Crude Oil Mini
Natural Gas & Natural Gas Mini
Gold & Gold Mini
Silver & Silver Mini
Before getting into the new rules, it’s important to understand the risk we are managing.
What is Devolvement?
Unlike index options, which are cash-settled, commodity options on MCX are physically settled into Futures contracts. This process is called devolvement.
If you hold an In-The-Money (ITM) option at the moment of expiry, it does not settle in cash. Instead, it converts into a live Futures position.
Why is Devolvement Risky?
The risk comes from the sudden jump in margin requirement.
Options:
You might buy an option by paying a premium of, say, ₹10,000.Futures:
If that option devolves into a Futures contract, you are suddenly required to maintain the full SPAN + Exposure margin, which can run into ₹2 Lakhs or more, depending on the contract (Crude, Natural Gas, Gold, or Silver).
If your account does not have sufficient funds, this results in a margin shortfall, which can attract penalties or forced action. This is why expiry-day risk needs tighter controls.
How the New System Works
The updated rules are designed to let you trade expiry-day moves intraday, while preventing accidental devolvement.
1. Intraday Trading (Open for Everyone)
You can now trade expiry-day options using:
Intraday
Bracket Orders (BO)
Cover Orders (CO)
This applies to:
Crude Oil & Crude Oil Mini
Natural Gas & Natural Gas Mini
Gold & Gold Mini
Silver & Silver Mini
Since these are strictly intraday products, the system will automatically square off positions before market close. This ensures you can participate on expiry day without the risk of devolvement into Futures.
2. Carry Forward (Overnight) Limits
To prevent accidental holding of expiry-day options, we have placed a strict cut-off for fresh overnight positions.
Fresh Overnight orders are blocked from 9:00 PM on the day before expiry.
Example: If Natural Gas, Gold, or Silver expires on the 20th:
You can open fresh Overnight positions until 9:00 PM on the 19th.
After 9:00 PM, new carry-forward positions will not be allowed.
3. Taking Devolvement (If You Intend To)
If you want your option position to devolve into a Futures contract, you can still do so.
The position must have been opened before the cut-off time.
You must maintain sufficient balance to cover the full Futures margin.
If the required funds are available, the system will allow the option to devolve into a Futures position on expiry.
Summary
Intraday / BO / CO: Allowed for Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Gold, Silver, and all Mini contracts on expiry day.
Overnight: Fresh positions blocked from 9:00 PM on the day before expiry.
Devolvement: Allowed only if you maintain the full Futures margin.
This update is live on the platform.