Futures adopt the debt-free settlement system on the same day, so the profit and loss of the day should be settled after the daily closing. The settlement price of stock index futures is the weighted average of the transaction price in the last hour of the day according to the volume. If there is no deal in the last hour, push it forward for an hour. If the margin is insufficient, the futures company will require customers to add margin before the market opens the next day, otherwise they will be forced to lighten or close their positions.

The delivery of stock index futures refers to the settlement of the expiration date of the stock index futures contract (the third Friday of the contract expiration month). Since stock index futures are delivered in cash, it does not involve the delivery of spot (a basket of stocks related to the stock index), and the final settlement price is based on the arithmetic average price of the last two hours of the underlying index.

The difference is that there is settlement every day and delivery is only once.