What Is FutEq Open Interest? SEBI's Delta Measure

FutEq open interest is the measure Indian market regulators now use to size derivatives positions: not the notional value of the contracts, but the net delta adjusted position across futures and options for an underlying. FutEq stands for future equivalent. SEBI formalised it in a circular dated 29 May 2025, and it is the number the market wide position limit test now runs against.

How is FutEq open interest calculated?

Delta is the sensitivity of a derivative position's price to a move in the underlying, and the method assigns it as follows:

• Long futures: a delta of plus 1 times notional.
• Long calls: between 0 and plus 1 times notional.
• Long puts: between 0 and minus 1 times notional.
• Short options: the effective delta of a short call is negative, and of a short put is positive.

Each unique client code's positions are netted into one figure for the underlying. The market wide FutEq OI is then the gross addition of those net per-client numbers. Gross addition of net positions is the important asymmetry: hedged positions inside one client's book cancel, but one client's long does not cancel another client's short.

SEBI's own worked example makes the difference visible. Four clients hold positions with a combined notional of 2,800, and a combined FutEq OI of 900. One of them, holding a short put and a short call of the same size, contributes a notional of 800 and a FutEq OI of zero.

Why did SEBI change the measure?

The change came out of an Expert Working Group on derivatives, a consultation paper issued on 24 February 2025, and deliberation in the Secondary Market Advisory Committee with the exchanges and clearing corporations. SEBI names three objectives:

1. Better monitoring and disclosure of risks in F&O.
2. Reduce instances of spurious F&O ban periods in single stocks.
3. Better oversight over the possibility of concentration or manipulation risk in index options.

The second objective is the one most visible to anyone watching single stocks. Under notional open interest, a large options book that carried little directional exposure still counted toward the cap, which could push a scrip into the ban period without a corresponding build-up of risk.

What does FutEq OI actually govern?

Two things, both effective 1 October 2025.

The market wide position limit test. Exchanges and clearing corporations test at end of day whether market wide FutEq OI for a scrip exceeds 95 per cent of its MWPL, rather than testing notional open interest as before. The MWPL itself was recast in the same circular as the lower of 15 per cent of free float and 65 times average daily delivery value, floored at 10 per cent of free float.

Behaviour inside the ban period. Trading after a scrip enters the ban must reduce the participant's FutEq OI on an end of day basis. A sign flip does not count as a reduction, and a passive increase caused by the underlying moving is not a breach. See what is the F&O ban list for how that plays out.

The same circular reset individual entity-level position limits in FutEq terms, including 10 per cent of MWPL for a client or NRI and 20 per cent for a trading member's proprietary book, also effective 1 October 2025.

Where is FutEq open interest published?

Clearing corporations have been disseminating FutEq OI for all scrips and indices on their websites, and intimating entity level FutEq OI to participants through their portal. SEBI directed that this continue for the purposes of the new framework, so the number is already in the public daily record rather than something the framework created from scratch.

From 3 November 2025, exchanges also monitor MWPL utilisation intraday at least four random times a session, can levy additional surveillance margin, and report significant utilisation or breaches to SEBI at the fortnightly surveillance meeting.

How to read FutEq OI alongside the filing record

Open interest, in any form, tells you about positioning, not ownership. The two answer different questions and the filings are where ownership lives:

• FutEq OI is a derivatives risk metric. It is not a holding, and nobody discloses it as one.
• Free float is the denominator behind the position cap, so a small float means a small cap and an earlier ban trigger.
• The ASM list and the GSM framework are separate surveillance regimes with their own criteria, and a stock can sit under several at once.
• The shareholding pattern is where promoter, FII and DII holding is actually reported, quarter by quarter.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each stamped with its date and linked back to the exchange or regulator that published it. What any of it means for you is your call to make.