XAU Contract Rules
Overview
Settlement Price Source: OKX XAU-USDT Spot Index Price. Index details: https://www.okx.com/markets/index/xau-usdt
Reference Time: 5:00:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time (ET) daily, automatically observing EST/EDT transitions.
Settlement Price Calculation: Arithmetic mean of index close prices sampled once per second during a 1-minute window immediately before the reference time.
Outcome Determination:
Daily Up/Down: Settlement Price > Target Price → Up; Settlement Price < Target Price → Down; Settlement Price = Target Price → Up.
Daily Above: Settlement Price ≥ Strike Price → Yes; Settlement Price < Strike Price → No.
Trading Hours & Non-Trading Days: Gold's underlying TradFi market follows fixed trading sessions and holiday closures. Listed holidays are non-trading days, and OKX will not list event contracts whose expiry falls on those dates. Specifics follow the XCEC Holiday Calendar
Market Disruption: If an unscheduled trading halt, early close, stale price, or other underlying market disruption occurs, the event enters dispute review and OKX applies the manual settlement procedure (see § 4 Market Disruption & Trading Halt).
Insufficient Data: If usable per-second index close price data points fall below 50% of the required total within the window, the event enters dispute review.
Dispute: If the settlement price is deemed abnormal, settlement is suspended pending dispute review. The final settlement price is determined after independent review by the platform.
1. Settlement Price Calculation
The settlement price is determined by the arithmetic mean of OKX XAU-USDT index close prices (one close price per second) within a specified time window immediately before the reference time.
Item | Description |
Reference Time | 5:00:00 PM ET daily, automatically observing EST/EDT transitions |
Time Window | 1 minute before the reference time (e.g., if reference time is 17:00:00 ET, window is 16:59:00–16:59:59 ET) |
Data Points | 1 index close price per second; 60 data points in total |
Settlement Price | Arithmetic mean of per-second XAU-USDT index close prices within the window |
An arithmetic average across multiple data points — rather than a single price at one moment — is used to mitigate the impact of short-term price manipulation on the settlement outcome.
2. Target Price / Strike Price
Daily Up/Down Contracts: The target price is the XAU-USDT index opening price at the reference time (5:00:00 PM ET), or such other target price specified in the applicable contract.
Daily Above Contracts: The strike (threshold) price is the threshold displayed in the event contract at listing.
3. Trading Hours & Scheduled Non-Trading Days
Gold's underlying TradFi market follows fixed trading sessions and holiday closures. OKX references the XCEC Holiday Calendar to identify scheduled non-trading days for the TradFi component of the XAU index. Known XCEC (including U.S. listed holidays) are non-trading days. Where the scheduled expiry date of an XAU event contract falls on a non-trading day, OKX will not list such contract; such events are pre-emptively excluded at the listing layer.
4. Market Disruption & Trading Halt Handling
Once an XAU event contract has been listed, if the underlying TradFi market subsequently experiences a trading halt, closure, or other price anomaly, OKX classifies and handles the situation under the cases below. Except for Case A (excluded at the listing layer), all cases proceed through dispute review to determine the final settlement price.
4.1 Disruption Cases and Settlement Price Determination
Case | Trigger | Settlement Price Determination |
A. Scheduled non-trading day | The event expiry falls on a known XCEC / Pyth non-trading day | Event not listed; pre-emptively excluded at the listing layer |
B. Whole-day unscheduled closure | The affected trading day is cancelled in its entirety | Arithmetic mean of per-second index close prices over the 60-second window immediately preceding 5:00:00 PM ET on the most recent prior trading day |
C. Early close | The market closes earlier than its scheduled session end | Arithmetic mean of per-second index close prices over the 60-second window immediately preceding the actual early-close time |
D. Mid-session unscheduled halt / system incident | Exchange system incident, unscheduled CME or CME-related market disruption, or any other mid-session trading halt that affects the price data within the reference window | Arithmetic mean of per-second index close prices over the longest available tradeable price window prior to the halt, subject to the minimum data-quality threshold determined under OKX's internal rules |
4.2 Handling Procedure
Order cancellation: Upon arrival of the designated settlement time, all resting orders on the affected contract will be cancelled first. OKX may suspend new order entry, restrict position increases, or take other risk-control actions before final settlement.
Settlement: Open positions on the affected contract will be settled at the final settlement price determined under this section.
Public announcement: OKX will issue a public announcement for any event contract settled under the manual or early settlement procedure of this section.
Example events: Including but not limited to exchange system incidents, unscheduled CME or CME-related market disruptions, official early market closes, natural disasters, national days of mourning, or other events that materially affect the availability or reliability of the underlying TradFi price data.
5. Settlement Conditions & Review Triggers (Overview)
Scenario | Condition | Handling |
Normal Settlement | Per-second index close price data points ≥ 50% of required total, and no market disruption | Settlement price = arithmetic mean of index close prices |
Dispute — Insufficient Data | Per-second index close price data points < 50% | Settlement is paused and dispute is triggered |
Dispute — Market Disruption | Any of Cases B–D in § 4.1 occurs | Settlement is paused and dispute is triggered; settlement price determined under the corresponding case |
6. Outcome Determination & Settlement
Once the settlement price is determined, it is compared against the target price / strike price:
Daily Up/Down Contracts:
Settlement Price > Target Price → Event outcome is Up
Settlement Price < Target Price → Event outcome is Down
Settlement Price = Target Price (after precision & rounding) → Event outcome is Up
Daily Above Contracts:
Settlement Price ≥ Strike Price → Event outcome is Up
Settlement Price < Strike Price → Event outcome is Down
Upon settlement, profit and loss are credited to the user's account and the position is closed. No additional fees are charged for settlement.
7. Dispute Mechanism
When settlement price data is abnormal, the underlying market is disrupted, or a risk control rule is triggered, OKX may initiate a dispute review:
Trigger: Automatic (e.g., missing settlement price, risk control rule triggered) or manual (anomaly detected by the platform / user complaint via ticket).
Process: A multi-round independent review is conducted. An authorised operator inputs the applicable settlement price, the corresponding reference timestamp, and the reason for manual settlement, to confirm the final settlement price.
During Dispute: Settlement is suspended; all resting orders on the affected contract will be cancelled at the designated settlement time; open positions will be settled at the final settlement price determined under § 4 once review is complete.
Outcome: Original price confirmed → settle at original price; price error identified → re-settle at corrected price.
Public Disclosure: For any event contract settled under the manual or early settlement procedure, OKX will issue a public announcement covering the affected contract, the reason for the adjustment, the settlement price, the reference timestamp or calculation window, and the treatment of open orders and open positions.
8. Risk Disclosure
The settlement price is based on a time-window average and may differ from the price at any single moment.
Gold's underlying TradFi market follows fixed trading sessions and holiday closures, which may give rise to unscheduled trading halts, early closes, or stale-price conditions.
OKX reserves the right to suspend settlement or adjust parameters without prior notice due to market risks and re-open after assessing the risk.