The seven Indian-market-specific rules you need to know before any F&O trade — wrapped up in one quick reference.
Module 1 covered the seven Indian-market-specific F&O rules that every trader needs to internalise before opening their first position. This recap is the quick-reference: each topic linked to its full chapter, plus the one-line take-away you should be able to recite without thinking.
If you only remember one thing from this module: NSE F&O is European-style with full-notional STT on auto-exercise. Both of those will surprise traders coming from US-options content. Plan around them.
1. Lot size: One F&O contract = lot × 1 unit. NIFTY 25, BANK NIFTY 15, FIN NIFTY 40, MIDCAP NIFTY 50. Stock lots vary widely. Full chapter →
2. Expiry calendar: MIDCAP Mon, FIN Tue, BANK Wed, NIFTY Thu. Stock F&O monthly only. Full chapter →
3. MWPL & F&O ban: Triggered at 95% of Market-Wide Position Limit. Existing positions OK; new positions blocked. Full chapter →
4. Settlement: VWAP of 3:00-3:30 PM IST on expiry. ITM auto-exercises. Full chapter →
5. STT on options: 0.05% premium on entry; zero on close; 0.125% FULL NOTIONAL on ITM auto-exercise. Close ITM before expiry. Full chapter →
6. European-style: Exercise only at expiry. No early assignment. Cleaner Theta harvest, simpler pricing. Full chapter →
7. Rollover percentage: Next-month OI ÷ total OI. Above 75% = high conviction. Full chapter →
Run this checklist before every F&O order. It takes 30 seconds and prevents most retail mistakes.
1. Lot size: what's the current lot for this symbol? Multiply your intended trade size by it.
2. Expiry day: when does this contract expire? Set a reminder.
3. F&O ban status: is this stock in the ban list today?
4. STT on exit: if I'll hold to expiry, will it likely be ITM? If yes, plan to close 30 minutes before settlement.
5. Tick size: does my limit price respect the ₹0.05 tick?
6. Rollover (last week of month): what's the current rollover %? Strong rollover means most institutional positioning will carry forward.
Module 2 (coming): Smart Money Basics — how to read FII vs DII flow, cash vs derivative positioning, participant categories, and persistence vs reversal patterns.
Module 3 (coming): Reading the Option Chain — every column, every signal, India-specific examples.
Module 4 (coming): Options Greeks Applied — Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega with live NIFTY ATM widget showing current values.
Subscribe to RSS or check back weekly — new modules drop as they're written. The full library architecture is documented in docs/learn-architecture.md in Strota's open repo.
You know the rules — not the strategies. That's like knowing chess piece movements but not openings. Module 5 (Options Strategies India) covers when and how to actually deploy F&O positions. Plan to paper-trade or use ₹5,000-10,000 maximum position sizes for the first 2-3 months even after reading more.
STT on ITM auto-exercise (Chapter 5). Forgetting it can convert a profitable expiry trade into a loss in one bad close. The 'always close ITM before expiry' habit is the single highest-EV rule in this module.
Varsity covers everything Strota Learn covers (and more) but in an encyclopedic, sequential format. Strota Learn is shorter, applied, and shows TODAY's actual numbers via live widgets. Read both — Varsity once for the full theory, Strota Learn daily for the applied reads on current market state.
Settlement (Chapter 4), MWPL (Chapter 3), and Rollover (Chapter 7) are essential. The STT and European-style chapters (5 and 6) you can mostly skip. But the option chain still tells you about positioning that affects futures direction — at least skim the option-chain reading module when it's published.
Being written next. Check /learn for status — when it goes from 'Planned' to 'Live', it's ready. You can also follow the Strota RSS feed at /feed.xml to get notified of new chapters.