Trading & Markets
Settlement Price
The official daily closing price the exchange publishes for each contract, used to mark accounts, margins, and most end-of-day drawdowns.
In plain English
Each day the exchange determines a settlement price from the closing period's trading. It is the number that daily profit and loss is marked against, and in prop trading it quietly powers the most important rule: end-of-day drawdowns trail your balance as of settlement, not at midnight and not tick by tick.
Knowing the settlement time for your product (4pm Eastern for US equity index futures, with the session closing at 5) tells you exactly when an EOD drawdown updates and when a day officially ends for rules like minimum trading days.
- A trader is up $800 at 3:50pm ET.
- Whether they close now or hold through settlement determines the balance their EOD drawdown trails from tomorrow.