Delta Horizon Capital | Hong Kong Exchange Gold Futures (GDU) Market Making Weekly Report

Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）, as a designated market maker for the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) US Dollar Gold Futures (GDU), continues to operate under the framework of the GDU trading fee waiver and liquidity provider incentive program. Total trading volume across all contracts in the third week reached 53,563 lots, an increase of 16.5% from the previous week (45,968 lots). The After-Hours Session contributed over 55% of the trading volume, indicating continued growing participation of global investors in the gold pricing tool during Asian hours.

GDU Week 3 Market Performance

The HKEX GDU US Dollar Gold Futures continued the active trend since the launch of the incentive program in the third week (July 20–24). The main contract Aug-26 traded 24,761 lots for the week, the secondary contract Dec-26 traded 28,802 lots, and total contracts combined 53,563 lots. The Aug-26/Dec-26 spread trades totaled 11,114 lots, accounting for 20.7% of the total market volume, continuously providing liquidity support for inter-month arbitrage and rollover demand.

In terms of price movement, this week used the settlement prices of July 17 (last Friday) as the benchmark: the Aug-26 contract closed at 128.53 USD/gram, and the Dec-26 contract closed at 130.36 USD/gram. Prices rose continuously in the first half of the week, reaching the weekly high on Wednesday — Aug-26 settlement price 132.59 USD/gram, Dec-26 settlement price 134.43 USD/gram — then retreated in the following two trading days. As of Friday's close, Aug-26 reported 130.46 USD/gram, up +1.93 USD/gram (+1.50%) from the previous Friday; Dec-26 reported 132.29 USD/gram, up +1.93 USD/gram (+1.48%). All contract tenors posted a weekly increase of 1.93 USD/gram, with the term structure remaining stable.

Daily data as follows (Source: HKEX Daily Market Report):

Aug-26 Main Contract

Dec-26 Secondary Contract

Note: Weekly change calculated based on the settlement price of July 17, 2026 (last Friday). Aug-26 benchmark 128.53 USD/gram, Dec-26 benchmark 130.36 USD/gram.

The most significant structural change this week was the time distribution of trading volume. Of the total weekly volume of 53,563 lots, the After-Hours Session (Beijing time 17:15 to 03:00 next day) contributed 29,605 lots, accounting for 55.3%, far higher than the levels of the previous two weeks (approximately 16.5% in the first week and 31.3% in the second week). Especially on Thursday (7/23) and Friday (7/24), night session volumes reached 11,740 lots and 15,594 lots respectively, representing 74.4% and 86.5% of that day's total turnover. This change indicates that capital in the European and American trading sessions is rapidly increasing attention to the GDU product, and the global pricing function of HKEX gold futures is further emerging.

In terms of open interest, the total contract OI increased from 1,393 lots on July 17 to 1,410 lots on July 24 (+17 lots). The Aug-26 contract OI ended the week at 714 lots, flat from last Friday; the Dec-26 contract OI increased from 679 lots to 696 lots (+17 lots). OI briefly rose to 1,672 lots mid-week (Wednesday), then declined with the price pullback, indicating that holding interest remained resilient amid active trading.

The Aug-26/Dec-26 spread trades totaled 11,114 lots this week, with an average of 2,223 lots per day. The spread quotes consistently ran within a very narrow range of 1.81–1.85 USD/gram, with the bid-ask spread basically locked at 1 minimum price fluctuation unit (0.01 USD/gram), providing an efficient execution environment for inter-month arbitrage and rollover operations.

Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）Market Making Performance

As a designated market maker for HKEX GDU, Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）continued to provide high-frequency, stable, and tight bid-ask spread quotes in the third week, utilizing FPGA hardware acceleration and Co-location infrastructure to ensure the timeliness and reliability of quotes.

Quote Scale: Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）'s trading desk covers both day session and after-hours session around the clock, continuously outputting two-sided quotes on the main Aug-26 and secondary Dec-26 contracts. Based on approximately 20 quote orders per second, with about 17 hours of trading per day, it can issue over 1.22 million orders daily. Over the 5 trading days of the third week, it issued a cumulative total of over 6.1 million two-sided quote orders to the market, with quote coverage spanning multiple price levels in the order book.

Volume Contribution: Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）contributed a cumulative GDU volume of approximately 8,500 lots in the third week. Based on the main contract's average weekly price of approximately 131 USD/gram, this corresponds to a notional principal of approximately 1.114 billion USD, accounting for approximately 16% of the total market volume. The efficiency of quote-to-trade conversion was particularly notable on Thursday and Friday, when volatility increased, providing a crucial liquidity buffer to the market.

Spread Performance: Thanks to the FPGA low-latency pricing engine and Co-location architecture, Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）continuously provides tight two-sided quotes on the main contract. The bid-ask spread narrowed to 1 minimum price fluctuation unit (1 tick, i.e., 0.01 USD/gram) during calm periods, and remained stable at 1–2 ticks under normal market conditions. During the price retracement on Thursday and Friday, despite a surge in trading volume (a combined 33,813 lots over the two days), spreads did not widen significantly, ensuring execution quality for market participants under various market conditions.

Liquidity Depth: Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）continuously piles orders at multiple price levels on the main contract, providing executable liquidity depth to the market. The Aug-26/Dec-26 spread quotes are maintained within the 1.81–1.85 USD/gram range around the clock, with bid-ask spreads stable at the 1 tick level, providing strong liquidity support for institutional investors' large inter-month arbitrage and rollover needs.

Week 3 Summary

From July 20 to 24, 2026, driven by the continued trading fee waiver and LP incentive program, the HKEX GDU US Dollar Gold Futures saw further improvement in trading activity in the third week, with important changes in market structure:

• Total Contract Volume: 53,563 lots (Aug-26 main 24,761 lots + Dec-26 secondary 28,802 lots), up 16.5% from the previous week
• Total Open Interest: Increased from 1,393 lots to 1,410 lots (+17 lots), holding interest remained stable
• Spread Trading: Aug-26/Dec-26 spread volume 11,114 lots, accounting for 20.7% of total market volume
• After-Hours Trading Proportion: 55.3%, the highest since the launch of the incentive program, with significant increase in participation during European and US hours
• Weekly Change: Aug-26 +1.93 USD/gram (+1.50%), Dec-26 +1.93 USD/gram (+1.48%)
• Bid-Ask Spread: Main contract narrowed to 1–2 ticks, spread quotes maintained at 1 minimum price fluctuation unit level

Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本）, as the designated market maker for GDU, continued to provide high-frequency, stable, tight spread quotes in the third week's market environment of surging volume and prices that first rose then fell. The significant increase in the proportion of after-hours trading volume marks that the GDU product is attracting more and more investors from European and American time zones, and the international influence of HKEX gold futures as an Asian gold pricing center is continuously strengthening. The efficient operation of the market maker quoting system provides reliable liquidity assurance for market participants across different time zones.

Data Source: HKEX Daily Market Reports (GDUF260720–260724). Data as of: Market close on July 24, 2026.

Disclaimer: This material is provided by Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本） and is for institutional investor reference only. It does not constitute any express or implied investment advice, offer, or solicitation. The data and information contained in this report are derived from public market channels. Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本） makes no guarantees as to its accuracy or completeness. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Market risk exists, and investment should be made with caution.

Delta Horizon Capital（德合资本） is a quantitative trading firm headquartered in Hong Kong, with its technology and R&D team located in North America, focusing on quantitative trading, two-sided quoting, and market liquidity provision. The company has long been deeply involved in diversified markets such as precious metals, stock index futures, foreign exchange and interest rates, energy, and commodities. Relying on mature quantitative pricing models, rigorous risk management systems, and low-latency trading infrastructure, it provides stable, efficient, and flexible liquidity services to institutional clients. The core team members have a combined experience of over 30 years in international futures, options, and derivatives markets. Since 2017, the Delta Horizon trading team has successively obtained on-exchange market maker qualifications for the first batch of base metals, gold futures, A50 stock index futures, and RMB currency futures on the Hong Kong Exchange, and has received multiple awards from HKEX for market making and liquidity provision. Delta Horizon Capital (Hong Kong) Limited is currently listed on the HKEX US Dollar Gold Futures (GDU) liquidity provider list. For more details, please visit the official website: www.deltahorizoncapital.com