Options & Indian F&O glossary
Standard exchange terminology — strikes, the Greeks, margin, settlement — alongside DeltaK's own vocabulary: Aegis, Zenith, the Quantum Horizon, the COA Matrix and the four DKMS protocols, defined in full rather than left as unexplained jargon inside the terminal.
Options Basics
Premium
The price paid by a buyer, and received by a seller, for one option contract.
Strike Price
The fixed price at which an option's buyer can buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying.
At-The-Money (ATM)
The strike closest to the current spot price — carries the most time value on the chain.
In-The-Money (ITM)
A call with a strike below spot, or a put with a strike above spot — has real intrinsic value.
Out-of-the-Money (OTM)
A call with a strike above spot, or a put with a strike below spot — pure time value, no intrinsic value.
Moneyness
Where a strike sits relative to spot right now — in, at, or out of the money. It shifts every tick, and it sets how much of a premium is intrinsic value.
Breakeven Point
The underlying price at expiry where a position's total P&L is exactly zero.
Lot Size
The fixed number of underlying units bundled into one F&O contract — set by the exchange, not the trader.
Option Chain
The full grid of calls and puts across every listed strike for one underlying and expiry.
The Greeks
Delta (the Options Greek)
How much an option's premium moves for a ₹1 move in the underlying — not to be confused with DeltaK, the strategy this site's terminal runs.
Theta
The daily erosion of an option's time value as expiry approaches — always working against the option buyer.
Gamma
How fast delta itself changes as the underlying moves — the acceleration behind the acceleration.
Vega
How much an option's premium changes for a one-point move in implied volatility.
Implied Volatility (IV)
The market's forward-looking estimate of how much the underlying will move, backed out of current option prices.
Indian F&O Rules
Freeze Quantity
The largest quantity the exchange accepts in a single F&O order — the ceiling that caps how many lots one order can carry.
Weekly Expiry
The recurring weekly settlement date for an index's options contracts.
Monthly Expiry
The last weekly expiry of the calendar month for a given index — carries the deepest liquidity and open interest.
Physical Settlement
SEBI's rule that in-the-money stock F&O contracts settle by actual delivery of shares, not a cash payout.
Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on Options
A transaction tax charged on options trades, including on exercise of ITM options at expiry.
SPAN Margin
The exchange's scenario-based minimum margin requirement for a futures or short-options position.
Exposure Margin
An additional margin layered on top of SPAN, covering risk SPAN's scenario grid doesn't fully capture.
Circuit Limit (Dynamic Price Band)
The exchange-set price band beyond which an order simply can't be placed for that session.
F&O Ban List
Stocks whose F&O open interest has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit, restricted to reducing existing positions only.
Reading the Market
Put-Call Ratio (PCR)
Total put open interest divided by total call open interest — a rough sentiment gauge, read contrarian more often than literally.
Max Pain
The strike where total outstanding option value would be lowest at expiry — where option writers as a group lose the least.
Open Interest (OI)
The total number of outstanding contracts at a strike that haven't yet been closed, exercised or expired.
OI Buildup Matrix
The 2x2 reading of price direction against open-interest direction — long buildup, short buildup, short covering, long unwinding.
Rollover
Closing a position in the expiring month's contract and opening the equivalent position in the next month, to keep exposure running past expiry.
DeltaK Terminology
Aegis
DeltaK's name for the live support wall — the strike below spot, by open interest or session volume, that price is being defended against.
Zenith
DeltaK's name for the live resistance wall — the strike above spot, by open interest or session volume, that a rally is being capped against.
Quantum Horizon
DeltaK's live ITM/OTM boundary through the option chain — the at-the-money line, redrawn tick by tick as spot moves.
COA Matrix
Cumulative Open Interest Analysis — DeltaK's read of Aegis and Zenith across two generations of positioning at once.
RRG Momentum
DeltaK's per-strike Relative Rotation Graph — RS-Ratio against RS-Momentum, sorted into Leading, Improving, Weakening and Lagging.
Zero-OTM Rule
DeltaK's constraint that long entries are restricted to the 2nd or 3rd deepest in-the-money strike — never ATM, never OTM.
DKMS Protocols (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta)
The four regimes of the DeltaK Matrix Strategy — which one is armed is read live off how Aegis and Zenith are actually migrating.
See it read live, not just diagrammed
Quantum Horizon reads Aegis/Zenith wall migration and RRG rotation live across NIFTY, BANKNIFTY, FINNIFTY and MIDCPNIFTY — sign in and watch it work in Paper mode.