Introduction to Daily Settlement Mechanism

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The daily settlement mechanism is a key innovation designed to enhance trading efficiency, improve capital utilization, and provide greater transparency for derivative traders. This update introduces a structured daily settlement process for specific delivery contracts on OKX, ensuring users can better manage risk and optimize their positions over time.

👉 Discover how daily settlements can boost your trading performance and fund efficiency.

What Is the Daily Settlement Mechanism?

OKX has implemented a daily settlement mechanism for BTC-USDT, BTC-USD, ETH-USDT, and ETH-USD delivery contracts under cross-margin mode. This system automatically settles open positions at a fixed time each day, locking in profits or losses and resetting key metrics such as entry price.

At 4:00 PM UTC+8 every day, OKX calculates the settlement price based on the hourly average of the mark price, sampled every 200 milliseconds. This ensures fairness and minimizes manipulation risks. Once settled:

Note: Daily settlement applies only to cross-margin positions. It does not occur on the contract listing day or the final delivery date.

This mechanism enhances capital efficiency by allowing traders to realize gains daily without closing positions—ideal for long-term holders and active traders alike.

Key Benefits of Daily Settlement

  1. Improved Capital Utilization: Realized profits are immediately available in your wallet, enabling reinvestment or withdrawal without liquidating your position.
  2. Reduced Risk Exposure: By resetting the entry price daily, unrealized PnL volatility is minimized, leading to more predictable margin usage.
  3. Transparent Pricing: Settlement based on a time-weighted average mark price ensures accuracy and fairness.
  4. Seamless Integration: No action is required from users—the process runs automatically in the background.

Understanding Position Field Updates

As part of this mechanism, certain position fields behave differently. Below is a breakdown of how critical data points are affected:

Average Entry Price (avgPx)

This value reflects the current cost basis of your position. It changes under two conditions:

For example, if you hold a long position settled at $155,000 and later buy additional contracts at $160,000, the new average entry price becomes a volume-weighted mix of both prices.

Non-Settled Average Price (nonSettleAvgPx)

Unlike the standard average price, this metric ignores settlement resets. It only updates when you add or reduce position size. This allows advanced traders to track original cost basis across multiple settlement cycles—useful for performance analysis and tax reporting.

Settled Profit and Loss (settledPnl)

This represents the cumulative profit or loss locked in through daily settlements. Each day’s result is added to your available balance and reflected here. It does not include floating or realized PnL from closing trades.

👉 Learn how these dynamic fields give you deeper insight into your trading performance.

Practical Example: A Trader’s Journey Through Daily Settlement

Let’s walk through a realistic scenario showing how this mechanism works over time.

Step 1: Opening a Position

You open a BTC-USDT long position with:

No settled PnL yet.

Step 2: First Daily Settlement

At 4:00 PM UTC+8, the system settles using an average mark price of 155,000 USDT.

Step 3: Adding to the Position

You increase your exposure by buying another 0.05 BTC at 160,000 USDT.

Your effective cost basis diverges due to settlement history.

Step 4: Full Position Close

You exit entirely at 162,000 USDT.

This demonstrates how gains accumulate across settlement periods and final execution.

Accessing Settlement Records and Trade Bills

Transparency is central to OKX’s approach.

Trade Bill Tracking

Whenever a daily settlement occurs, a record labeled “Settlement” appears in your Order Center > Trade Bills section. Here you can view:

Historical Settlement Data

Visit Trading > Market Info > Settlement & Delivery Records > Settlement to access full historical logs. These include:

If the daily settlement feature is temporarily disabled due to market risk (as determined by OKX), no record will be generated for that day.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Does daily settlement close my position?

A: No. The position remains open. Only the entry price and realized PnL are updated.

Q: Is there a fee for daily settlement?

A: No fees are charged for this process.

Q: Can I opt out of daily settlement?

A: The mechanism applies automatically to eligible contracts in cross-margin mode. You cannot disable it individually.

Q: How does this affect my margin requirements?

A: Since the entry price resets daily, unrealized PnL fluctuations may be reduced, potentially stabilizing margin usage.

Q: Why is nonSettleAvgPx important?

A: It preserves your original trade economics across settlements—valuable for tracking true cost basis over time.

Q: What happens if I close my position right after settlement?

A: Your closing PnL will be calculated against the updated entry price (i.e., the previous day’s settlement price), ensuring accurate accounting.

👉 See how OKX’s tools help you stay in control with real-time data and automated workflows.

Core Keywords

Final Notes

The daily settlement mechanism represents a significant advancement in derivative trading infrastructure. By enabling regular profit realization and reducing PnL distortion over time, it supports smarter risk management and improved trading discipline.

While powerful, users should remain aware that digital asset trading involves substantial risk—including leverage amplification and potential total loss of investment. OKX may suspend the mechanism during periods of extreme volatility without prior notice.

This document serves informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always assess your personal risk tolerance and consult professionals when needed.

Trading never sleeps—and neither does innovation on OKX.