A futures market in which trading is halted because prices exceeded the exchange-defined daily limit. When a market is locked-limit, the volume of trading is very low or zero. A market that is locked-limit will probably open higher the following day. For example, if an exchange maintains that a commodity price cannot go up or down more than 30 cents per contract per day, it would declare a lock limit market if prices exceed that limit (i.e., when price go up or down more than 30 cents).

For futures options (options on futures), traders don’t come across a locked-limit market because in such markets there are no price limits, notwithstanding the price limits in the futures market.