Daily Price Limit
Also written DPL · Daily Price Limit (DPL) · Circuit filter · Daily Price Range · DPR
The band around the previous close within which a contract may trade during a day — a circuit filter that caps volatility, imposes a cooling-off pause, and can halt the contract for the session.
In plain language
A daily price limit is the exchange saying: not that fast.
It is a band drawn around yesterday's closing price. Inside the band, trading is normal. Reach the edge and the contract pauses for a cooling-off period, after which the band is widened once. Reach the wider edge and, for a domestic commodity, trading stops for the day.
The point is not to decide what a commodity is worth — the market still gets there, just over more sessions. The point is to give margin systems, clearing members and panicking clients a few minutes to catch up before the price runs somewhere their collateral cannot follow.
How it works
Limits are set per commodity and stated in the contract specification. The workbook's figures, from SEBI's master circular of 4 August 2023:
| Commodity category | Initial limit | After 15-minute cooling off | Beyond that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad and narrow agricultural | 4% | 6% for the rest of the day | No trade beyond 6% |
| Sensitive agricultural | 3% | 4% for the rest of the day | Trading stopped for the day |
| Internationally referenced | Wider band, up to 9% for the day |
The rationale for the split is straightforward: contracts whose prices are discovered locally get tighter limits, because a local squeeze is exactly what a circuit filter is there to interrupt. Contracts that track a global benchmark get wider ones, because the overnight move has already happened somewhere else and blocking it here only breaks the hedge. Contracts on international commodities may even be allowed to exceed the prescribed limits with regulatory approval when global prices are in sync.
Exchange practice from the workbook: NCDEX uses 4% to 6% on most agricultural futures; NSE uses 3% to 6% on gold contracts and 6% to 9% on silver. DPL is computed on the previous day's close price.
Two extensions matter. For index futures, the DPL is generally set equal to or higher than the DPL of the constituent commodity futures — the index cannot move much beyond what its constituents are allowed to, but index-level demand and supply may push it a little further. For options contracts, DPL is based on the Volatility Scan Range rather than on a flat percentage of the close.
The formula
Upper limit = Previous close x (1 + DPL)
Lower limit = Previous close x (1 - DPL)
A worked example
The workbook's simple case first: a contract closed yesterday at Rs 1,000 with a DPR of 5%. Today it may trade only between Rs 950 and Rs 1,050.
Now price a real one. Silver, lot 30 kilograms, previous close Rs 1,00,000 per kilogram, DPR 6% to 9%.
Contract value = 30 x 1,00,000 = Rs 30,00,000
| Stage | Band | Price range | Move on one lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening limit | 6% | Rs 94,000 to Rs 1,06,000 | Rs 1,80,000 |
| After 15-minute cooling off | 9% | Rs 91,000 to Rs 1,09,000 | Rs 2,70,000 |
A short who posted roughly 5% initial margin plus ELM — about Rs 1,50,000 — and watches silver run to the 6% ceiling is already Rs 1,80,000 down on a single lot. His entire initial margin is gone and he owes Rs 30,000 more before the day is out.
That is the arithmetic the cooling-off period exists for. Fifteen minutes is not long, but it is long enough for the exchange to reprice risk, for special or additional margin to be considered, and for a clearing member to stop a client digging further.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 7 (Clearing, Settlement and Risk Management), section 7.10.5, and Chapter 6 (Trading Mechanism), section 6.2.4. Expect a straight band computation from a previous close and a percentage, and the category question — which commodities get 4% to 6%, which get 3% to 4%, and why internationally referenced contracts get more room.
Common exam traps
- DPL, DPR and circuit filter are three names for the same thing. The workbook uses all three, sometimes in the same paragraph.
- It is computed on the previous day's close, not on the day's opening price or on the base price — except on a contract's first day, when the exchange-set base price is used.
- Sensitive agricultural commodities have the tightest band (3% to 4%) and stop trading beyond it. Tighter, not looser, despite being the commodities people most want to trade.
- Internationally referenced contracts get the widest band, up to 9%, and can even exceed it with approval. Local discovery gets narrow limits; global discovery gets wide ones.
- For options the limit is driven by the Volatility Scan Range, not by a percentage of the premium's previous close.
- A DPL is not a position limit. One caps the price; the other caps the size of a holding.
Check yourself
1.Why is the daily price limit (DPL) of a commodity index futures contract generally equal to or higher than the DPLs of its constituent commodity futures?
- a)Because index futures are cash-settled and therefore carry no delivery risk
- b)Because index-level demand and supply forces may move index futures additionally, over and above the constituent price movements
- c)Because index futures have a longer maximum tenor than single commodity futures
- d)Because the exchange must attract liquidity to a less popular product
Show the answer
Answer: (b) Because index-level demand and supply forces may move index futures additionally, over and above the constituent price movements
Real-time index calculation depends upon commodity futures prices, so the index's DPL is also restricted by the commodity level future prices' DPL. However, at index level futures, demand and supply forces may move index futures additionally — and hence, index futures' DPL is generally kept higher.
The index futures contract is not merely a calculated number. It is a separately traded instrument with its own order book, its own hedgers and its own arbitrageurs. Their buying and selling can push its price beyond what the constituents alone would justify — so the circuit must be set wider or the contract would freeze for reasons that have nothing to do with the commodities.
Like single commodity futures, index futures do have circuit breakers, and the DPL level is fixed by the respective exchanges.
2.A change to a contract's Daily Price Limit or Due Date Rate methodology falls into which modification category?
- a)Category A — done by the exchange with 10 days' advance notification
- b)Category B — done by the exchange with Product Advisory Committee and Regulatory Oversight Committee approval
- c)Category C — material, requiring deliberation in those committees and then SEBI permission
- d)It cannot be modified once a contract is launched
Show the answer
Answer: (c) Category C — material, requiring deliberation in those committees and then SEBI permission
"CATEGORY C: These are MATERIAL MODIFICATIONS REQUIRING REGULATORY APPROVALS. Prior to that, any modification in this category would have to be DELIBERATED WITHIN THE PRODUCT ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND REGULATORY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE BEFORE SEEKING PERMISSION FROM SEBI. These include CONTRACT LAUNCH CALENDAR, DPL, DUE DATE RATE / SETTLEMENT RATE, TENDER PERIOD, STAGGERED DELIVERY PERIOD START DATE for near month."
The full three-tier structure:
Category Covers Approval A — Non-material Symbol, order size, tick size, strike levels, number of strikes Exchange, with 10 days' notice B Expiry date, trading unit, delivery centre, delivery unit, quality specifications, premium/discount, open position limit Exchange with PAC and ROC approval (POST FACTO) C — Material Contract launch calendar, DPL, Due Date Rate, tender period, staggered delivery start date SEBI permission after PAC and ROC deliberation The graduation is by how much a change can move money. A symbol or tick size affects convenience. An expiry date or delivery centre affects logistics. But the due date rate methodology determines what everyone holding an open position ultimately receives — which is why only SEBI can sanction it.
Note the timing rule applies across the board: "Any modification can be done with AT LEAST 10 DAYS OF PRIOR INTIMATION", and "all changes relevant to CATEGORY B AND C would have to be ANNOUNCED TO THE MARKET 10 DAYS PRIOR."
Note also the "post facto" wording in Category B — those committees approve after the exchange acts, unlike Category C where SEBI's permission comes first.
3.A commodity's price may move from Rs 100 to Rs 100.10 or to Rs 99.90, but not to Rs 100.05 or Rs 99.95. What does this tell you?
- a)The daily price limit for the commodity is 10 paise
- b)The tick size for this commodity is Rs 0.10
- c)The lot size for this commodity is 10 units
- d)The quotation factor for this commodity is 10
Show the answer
Answer: (b) The tick size for this commodity is Rs 0.10
Tick size is the minimum price movement in terms of change in price or change in quotation for order. In this example, it means tick size for this commodity is fixed as Rs 0.10 (i.e. 10 paise), and quoted prices of the futures contracts shall be in multiples of 10 paise only.
The three distractors are all real concepts from this chapter, used wrongly:
- Daily price limit is the circuit breaker on a whole day's movement, not the granularity of each price step
- Lot size is the quantity in one contract — 1 kg for gold, 5 MT for zinc
- Quotation factor is the number of units the price refers to — 10 for gold quoted per 10 grams
All three of the last ones do appear together, in the tick value formula: (lot size / quotation factor) × tick size.
And remember: the tick size for commodity derivatives differs from one commodity to another — it is not a market-wide constant.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series XVIRelated terms
- Base priceThe reference price a contract starts each trading day from — the theoretical futures price on the day it is introduced, and the previous day's daily settlement price on every day after.
- Daily Settlement PriceThe price at which every open futures position is marked and reset at the end of each day — the last 30 minutes' volume weighted average price of that contract, computed separately for each expiry.
- Initial marginThe deposit both the buyer and the seller of a futures contract must place before the position is accepted, sized to cover a 99% worst-case one-day loss on that position.
- Volatility Scan RangeThe percentage volatility movement SPAN applies when scanning a portfolio for its worst-case loss, floored by SEBI at levels that depend on the commodity type and its annualised volatility.
- Tick sizeThe smallest price change a contract may be quoted in — prices move only in whole multiples of it, and it differs from one commodity to another.
- Good-Till-TriggerA broker-side resting instruction that sits outside the exchange until a chosen trigger price is touched, at which point it is converted into an ordinary order and pushed to the exchange.
- Soft and hard commoditiesThe basic split of the commodity universe: softs are perishable agricultural produce that is grown, hards are natural resources that are mined or processed.