This is an options chart, not a futures price chart. It plots the live at-the-money straddle on MCX Crude Oil options — the combined premium of the ATM Call and ATM Put at the same strike and expiry — through the commodity session. If you are looking for the crude futures price itself, this is not that; this is what the options market charges for movement in it.
The MCX session runs far longer than the equity market: roughly 09:00 to 23:30 IST, which means the straddle is live across the US session and reacts to inventory data and OPEC headlines in real time. Crude Oil options trade on a 50-point strike grid. Free and public — no login required.
An NSE index straddle decays across a six-and-a-quarter-hour window. An MCX Crude Oil straddle decays across roughly fourteen and a half hours, and the second half of that window overlaps the US trading day, when most crude-relevant news actually breaks.
The result is a chart with two distinct personalities. The Indian-hours portion is often quiet, with premium grinding down on thin domestic flow. The evening portion, once US markets and the international crude benchmarks are active, is where the repricing happens — and it can be abrupt.
The weekly US inventory release is the clearest recurring feature. Ahead of it the straddle typically refuses to decay at the usual rate; immediately after, it either collapses or gaps, depending on the surprise. Watching that on a single line is considerably more direct than inferring it from a chain.
The line falls when time decay dominates and nothing is repricing volatility. It rises when the options market starts paying up for movement — around inventory data, OPEC and OPEC+ announcements, geopolitical supply disruption, and sharp moves in the dollar.
Crude is a commodity with genuine supply-shock risk, so its implied volatility carries a persistent premium that index options do not. The straddle can stay elevated for days when a supply story is live, decaying much more slowly than a comparable index straddle would.
Because the underlying is quoted in rupees per barrel while the international benchmark trades in dollars, part of what moves the MCX straddle is currency rather than crude. A rupee move can reprice the contract without the underlying commodity doing anything at all.
MCX Crude Oil options are options on the futures contract, not on a spot index. The reference the straddle prices against is the traded future, which is why the chart shows the future rather than a synthetic cash level for MCX symbols.
The 50-point strike grid means the ATM strike rolls fairly frequently relative to the size of typical crude moves. The chart follows the roll, so the line stays on the live at-the-money pair rather than drifting onto a strike that is no longer near the money.
MCX also lists a mini contract alongside the main one. The straddle chart here tracks the main CRUDEOIL contract, which is the better-quoted of the two at the money.
The straddle premium is plotted with the traded crude future so you can separate a premium move caused by the underlying travelling from one caused by volatility repricing on its own.
A live ATM±5 option chain sits below the chart with the CE and PE prices and open interest behind the straddle number.
Straddle VWAP and adjustable EMA overlays are available as reference levels, and the expiry chips on the rail switch between available crude expiries.
Free, no login · Symbols covered: NIFTY, BankNifty, FinNifty, MidcpNifty, Sensex, Bankex, Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, Natural Gas · Content last reviewed August 2026