In futures, limit up or limit down is the maximum about that the price of a futures contract could change during any trading day, up or down (from the previous day’s closing price - with the exception of the stock indexes). Stock indexes are only limit down with no limits on the upside.
Limits are set by the futures exchanges upon which the products are traded. The limit high is the price at which no market participant may buy a futures contract and the limit low is the price at which no market participant may sell a futures contract for that day.
i.e. Corn has a limit of 30 cents. Corn can move $0.30 up or down from the price that it closed at the previous day. If corn closed at $3.80 yesterday, then closed at $3.50 or at $4.10, then the limit up/limit down, would be hit and trading would be suspended for that day
Locked Limit and Expanded Limit When the market closes at the limit high or below the limit low, then that particular market will close temporarily (this is called a locked limit). The day after a locked limit, expanded limits go in place that increase the original limit (the amount depends on the individual contract being traded).
Let’s refer back to our corn example to better explain how expanded limits work. If corn closed down at $3.50 or up at $4.10, then the next day, the limits could be expanded to $0.45. This makes a new limit high and limit low. The limit up would be $3.50+$.045 = $3.95. The limit down would be $3.50-$0.45 = $3.05.
Many traders feel that setting a stop-loss order on a futures contract that’s a little above the limit down or a little below the limit up will protect them from hitting that limit. Unfortunately, this is not the case. What actually happens is that the market can skip past your stop loss when it gaps up or down significantly.
The common mistake traders make is putting the stop loss too close to a limit move. If the market gaps past your stop order, then that order becomes an active market order when trading stops. this means that a stop-loss won’t necessarily get you out and when it does, it’s usually at the worst possible time.
Daily price limits do not apply to spreads or options. A trader who is caught in a limit up/limit down move can exit the market via the option market or futures spread market, despite the fact that the flat priced futures contract is lock limit.
If you find yourself caught in a limit up or limit down move, you can use options on futures or farther out futures contracts to protect yourself from additional losses when the market opens with expanded limits.
If you are short a futures contract and that contract hits the limit up, then you can protect your trade by purchasing a call option. This will protect you from taking on more upside losses. If you are long a futures contract and that contract hits limit down, then you can protect yourself from taking on more downside losses by buying a put option.
To hedge using futures, you can create a calendar spread to flatten your futures position to limit the exposure when the contract is locked limit. Because futures contracts are always trading with different expirations in further out months, you can spread your position by buying/selling a farther out contract.
If you are long a futures contract that hits limit down, you can sell a farther out futures contract that may protect yourself from a move further down. If you are short a futures contract and it hits limit up, you may protect yourself by buying a futures contract to protect a continued upside move.
The market will sometimes pause momentarily when a market moves up or down by a predetermined amount of ticks within a predefined time. Velocity logic is logic used to momentarily suspend trading in the given market when this occurs.
When trading is suspended temporarily due to a lead month futures triggering velocity logic, then the entire group that the given commodity belongs to will halt momentarily. i.e. if gold triggers velocity logic, then all metals products will pause in the futures/options market. This only happens for a few seconds. During this time, traders can submit, modify, and cancel orders after assessing the market situation.
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