PSX has exactly four ways to trade a listed security: the Ready Market, which settles T+1 and carries almost everything; two futures contracts, Deliverable Futures Contracts (DFC) and Cash Settled Futures (CSF); and the Negotiated Deal Market (NDM), a disclosed, privately-negotiated market that settles anywhere from T+0 to T+60. “Spot market” is not one of them. The phrase appears exactly twice in the PSX Regulations, and neither use defines a trading venue — which is also why searching for a plain-English explanation of “PSX spot market” turns up almost nothing. There’s nothing to explain.
The four markets, side by side
| Market | What trades | Settles | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready Market | Ordinary buy/sell of listed shares | T+1 | Nearly all retail and institutional trading |
| DFC | Standardised 90-day futures, physical delivery | Expiry + 1 | Leveraged exposure that ends in shares |
| CSF | Standardised futures, cash-settled | Expiry + 1, cash | Leveraged exposure without taking delivery |
| NDM | Privately negotiated block trades | T+0 to T+60, disclosed | Large trades negotiated outside the order book |
”Spot market” — a phrase without a market
A full-text search of the current rulebook and its 2023 predecessor turns up “spot” exactly twice in each, and neither is a market definition. The first is a label on a broker’s contract note:
Chapter 7 — “Nature of trade (SPOT, Ready, Future…)”
The second is punitive, not something a trader opts into:
5.11 — non-compliant companies are traded “only on T+0 (SPOT) for the next 7 days” before suspension.
- A field name on a contract note, alongside Ready and Future.
- A punitive same-day (T+0) settlement mode forced on non-compliant issuers for seven days before suspension.
- There is no clause defining a "Spot Market" as a venue.
- There is no spot settlement cycle a trader can choose.
- There is no link between "spot" and book closure or entitlements.
The 2023 rulebook defined the Ready Market as settling “either on T+1 or T+2” and folded in a separate Odd Lots Market; the February 2026 text drops both and simply says T+1. Whatever informal “spot” trading habit that gap once described, the current rulebook doesn’t carry a definition for it — book closure is now handled inside the Ready Market by flipping the affected security to an ex-entitlement basis, a mechanism covered in the desk’s piece on the book-closure ex-date.
Futures: two contracts, one expiry, different endings
Both futures products are standardised, exchange-traded contracts — not the negotiated, over-the-counter kind — but they end differently:
13.1, 13.2.6 — DFC is a standardised 90-day contract issued monthly, in lots of 500 shares, expiring the last Friday of the contract month. Contract Specifications set physical delivery, expiry + 1.
14.3.3, 14.1(e) — CSF’s final settlement is T+1, in cash, priced off the Ready Market closing price on expiry day, with daily mark-to-market in between (14.3.2).
A DFC position held to expiry becomes shares in your account one settlement day later; a CSF position held to expiry becomes a cash difference, with no shares changing hands at any point. One other wrinkle: if an entitlement (dividend, bonus, rights) falls inside a pending futures settlement, 13.6.2 has the Exchange predate the last trading day and settlement date to keep the futures position in line with the underlying’s book closure — the same corporate-action mechanics reaching into a market well outside the Ready Market it originates in.
The Negotiated Deal Market isn’t T+0
NDM is where two counterparties who already know each other’s identity — not the anonymous order book — agree a trade and report it. Its settlement window is wide, and NCCPL states it directly:
“Settlement Cycle of NDM trades is ranging from T+0 to T+60.” — NCCPL, Clearing & Settlement Services, item 02.
T+0 is one available cycle inside that range, not the market’s defining feature — a distinction worth making explicitly, since NDM’s same-day option is easy to conflate with the “spot” language covered above. NDM trades are disclosed, settle trade-for-trade, and NCCPL is explicit that “no netting is permissible” between an NDM trade and any position in another market. PSX’s own Chapter 8.15 governs NDM conduct but sets no settlement cycle of its own — that detail lives entirely with NCCPL.
Where the desk actually trades
Henneth is long-only, and the desk’s research and position sizing apply to the Ready Market alone — no futures, no leverage, no NDM block trades. Knowing what DFC, CSF and NDM are is still useful context: news about futures open interest or a large NDM print is routinely reported alongside Ready Market price action, and a term like “spot” showing up in commentary about a stock usually just means Ready Market, since PSX’s own rulebook doesn’t give it anywhere else to mean.
Checking this yourself
- PSX Regulations, 9 February 2026 — 2.4(lxxvii) and 10.5.1 (Ready Market), Chapter 7 and 5.11 (“spot”), Chapters 13–14 (DFC, CSF), Chapter 8.15 (NDM conduct)
- PSX Rule Book, 15 February 2023 — the superseded “T+1 or T+2” Ready Market definition and the former Odd Lots Market, for comparison
- NCCPL Clearing & Settlement Services — the T+0-to-T+60 NDM settlement range and the no-netting rule
Research, not advice. This explains what PSX’s own rulebook defines as a market and what it doesn’t; it is not a recommendation to trade any of them. Rules are dated — check the current PSX Regulations before acting on anything time-sensitive.