What is a "time-based" futures contract?

A time-based futures contract is a contract that bears an expiry date which determines when the position will be closed. This type of a contract gives you the flexibility to enter or exit the market whenever you like.

The features of a time-based contract includes:

• Expiry Date: Either Quarterly or Monthly
• Market Price: The last buy / sell price
• Underlying Asset of each contract is:  1/1000th of the corresponding digital currency
• PnL Base: All PnL can be settled in USD / BTC / USDT / TUSD / USDC
• Leverage: Allows you to enter a futures position that is worth more than you are required to pay upfront. Leverage is the ratio of the initial margin to the order value of a contract
• Margin: Funds required in order to open and maintain a position. You can use both fiat and digital assets as your margin.
  • The price of your digital asset margin is calculated based on an executable market price that is representative of your asset quality and market liquidity. This price may differ slightly from the prices you see on the spot market
• Liquidation: When the mark price reached your liquidation price, the liquidation engine will take over your position
• Mark Price: Time-based contracts use the mark price to determine your unrealized PnL and when to trigger the liquidation process

Contract Period

• Monthly Contracts: Starts from the previous day of the last Friday of the previous month and ends on the last Friday of the current month.

  E.g. 2021 April monthly contract period would be 26/03/2021 - 30/04/2021

  
  

• Quarterly Contracts: Starts from the previous day of the last Friday of the last month of the previous quarter to the last Friday of the current quarter.

  E.g. 2021 Q1 contract period would be 24/12/2020 - 26/03/2021
  
  

• Double Quarter Contracts: Launched once every six months (twice a year).

  - The first double quarter contracts starts from the previous day of the last Friday of last December to the last Friday of June of the current year.

  - The second double quarter contracts starts from the previous day of the last Friday of May of the current year to the last Friday of December of the current year.

  E.g. 2021's first double quarterly contract period would be 24/12/2020 - 25/06/2021

Expiration Settlement Process

If your position reached its expiration time (08:00 UTC of the expiration date), the system will use the Moving Average Price to close your position and calculate your profit and loss.
* Moving Average Price: The average of the Spot Index Price, which will be collected every second for the last hour before expiration, a total of 3600 data points.

Expiration Settlement PnL Calculation

Longs = (Moving Average Price - Position Entry Price) x Contract Multiplier  x Contract Size

Shorts = (Position Entry Price - Moving Average Price) x Contract Multiplier  x Contract Size 

* If you exit the market before the expiration time:

Longs = (Market Price - Position Entry Price) x Contract Multiplier x Contract Size

Shorts = (Position Entry Price - Market Price) x Contract Multiplier x Contract Size

Can I set up my time-based contracts to be auto-renewed?

Time-based contracts cannot be automatically renewed. If you would like to obtain contracts of the next period, please buy / sell the contracts when the next market opens

Contract Month Codes

Contract Specifications

Please visit: https://support.btse.com/en/support/solutions/articles/43000531774