Jump to content

Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.

  • Welcome Guests

    Welcome. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest which does not give you access to all the great features at Traders Laboratory such as interacting with members, access to all forums, downloading attachments, and eligibility to win free giveaways. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Create a FREE Traders Laboratory account here.

ptcman

Trading the Current Contract

Recommended Posts

Hi.

 

I'm sort of "new" when trading with futures.

I've always traded CFD's, but got tired of the big spreads when compared with futures spreads.

 

The problem that I'm having at the moment is the contract being traded.

There are those that are simple to understand. ES, NQ, YM, 6E. March is the contract being traded at this moment. No problem here.

 

But then we have the ones that confuses me, GC, CL, NG, ZW, ZC, ZS. I never know which contract/month is being traded at this moment.

For example, GC December contract is still being traded, despite last Friday had been a futures close day.

 

Where or how can I know the correct contract being traded?

 

Regards.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The correct answer is "all contracts that are trading are being traded", if being somewhat illiquid. Every contract has a "Last Trading Date" (LTD) but settlement/exchange for physical can also occur in the days after the LTD. In any case, the liquidity is terrible towards the end of each monthly delivery so you probably want to roll a week or more before the LTD. Use historical data to see where the volume begins to decline.

 

For physically settled contracts, you should also be aware of the "First Notice Date" (FND). Unless you are trading the physical, you don't want to be called to deliver. So roll to the next desired delivery.

 

Some contracts have "interstitital" or "minor" months that few people trade - this is especially the case with agricultural futures. eg. Corn - most people ignore January and November deliveries. You can easily see this by looking at volume and open interest.

 

It is important to understand the intricacies of each futures contract you trade. You should be familiar with the Contract Specifications too and understand the implications of limit moves.

 

The Contract Specifications are available from the exchange's web site.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hi.

 

I'm sort of "new" when trading with futures.

I've always traded CFD's, but got tired of the big spreads when compared with futures spreads.

 

The problem that I'm having at the moment is the contract being traded.

There are those that are simple to understand. ES, NQ, YM, 6E. March is the contract being traded at this moment. No problem here.

 

But then we have the ones that confuses me, GC, CL, NG, ZW, ZC, ZS. I never know which contract/month is being traded at this moment.

For example, GC December contract is still being traded, despite last Friday had been a futures close day.

 

Where or how can I know the correct contract being traded?

 

Regards.

 

Just to add to Richards post, when you say "currently traded" I think you mean "Front Month".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just to add to Richards post, when you say "currently traded" I think you mean "Front Month".

 

 

Crude currently traded contract, the front month (?), is G, February, expiring on January 21st, correct?

 

I read that rollovers are made every Thursday's prior to the expiration week. It's logical do assume that from that day on, volume start to decline on that same contract, correct? So a week prior to the expiration we should switch contract to the new front month, though at least 'til the expiration day itself the volume should be sufficient to trade.

 

Can you explain what you meant when you said the implications that the limit moves can have? Are you talking about when an exchange suspend trading activity due to an excess volatility such the one seen at the May's flash crash?

 

Regards.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You almost always want to be trading the contract with the most volume. MRCI reports yesterdays volumes for a wide range of futures and current contracts so you can use it to check that you're in the right contract and to roll over when it switches - make sure you know when they expire though so you can ensure you change in time.

 

Contracts Volumes and OIs

 

On some contracts (Asian 1 month index futures) the rolllover is 100% predictable with the contract expiring at the close of the day before the last business day of the month. In this case the afternoon has almost no volume and that morning the volume switches so you simply roll on the morning of the day before the last day of the business month.

 

For some (like ED say) you might find that the logical front month isn't it and everyone is trading December. So watch the volumes as well as applying any date based approaches.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I would suggest you put up a Matrix/Market Analyzer or whatever it is for charting software that will give you each market, last, net change, volume, etc in a table format and than put in current month contracts and next future month contract and compare volume. Here are a couple of websites that I use to get contract months and times market is trading. Gold trades in even months (Feb, April, etc)

Futures Contract Symbols

 

Commodity trading Hours Electronic Trading Future Trading

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Be careful who you blame.   I can tell you one thing for sure.   Effective traders don’t blame others when things start to go wrong.   You can hang onto your tendency to play the victim, or the martyr… but if you want to achieve in trading, you have to be prepared to take responsibility.   People assign reasons to outcomes, whether based on internal or external factors.   When traders face losses, it's common for them to blame bad luck, poor advice, or other external factors, rather than reflecting on their own personal attributes like arrogance, fear, or greed.   This is a challenging lesson to grasp in your trading journey, but one that holds immense value.   This is called attribution theory. Taking responsibility for your actions is the key to improving your trading skills. Pause and ask yourself - What role did I play in my financial decisions?   After all, you were the one who listened to that source, and decided to act on that trade based on the rumour. Attributing results solely to external circumstances is what is known as having an ‘external locus of control’.   It's a concept coined by psychologist Julian Rotter in 1954. A trader with an external locus of control might say, "I made a profit because the markets are currently favourable."   Instead, strive to develop an "internal locus of control" and take ownership of your actions.   Assume that all trading results are within your realm of responsibility and actively seek ways to improve your own behaviour.   This is the fastest route to enhancing your trading abilities. A trader with an internal locus of control might proudly state, "My equity curve is rising because I am a disciplined trader who faithfully follows my trading plan." Author: Louise Bedford Source: https://www.tradinggame.com.au/
    • SELF IMPROVEMENT.   The whole self-help industry began when Dale Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936. Then came other classics like Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins toward the end of the century.   Today, teaching people how to improve themselves is a business. A pure ruthless business where some people sell utter bullshit.   There are broke Instagrammers and YouTubers with literally no solid background teaching men how to be attractive to women, how to begin a start-up, how to become successful — most of these guys speaking nothing more than hollow motivational words and cliche stuff. They waste your time. Some of these people who present themselves as hugely successful also give talks and write books.   There are so many books on financial advice, self-improvement, love, etc and some people actually try to read them. They are a waste of time, mostly.   When you start reading a dozen books on finance you realize that they all say the same stuff.   You are not going to live forever in the learning phase. Don't procrastinate by reading bull-shit or the same good knowledge in 10 books. What we ought to do is choose wisely.   Yes. A good book can change your life, given you do what it asks you to do.   All the books I have named up to now are worthy of reading. Tim Ferriss, Simon Sinek, Robert Greene — these guys are worthy of reading. These guys teach what others don't. Their books are unique and actually, come from relevant and successful people.   When Richard Branson writes a book about entrepreneurship, go read it. Every line in that book is said by one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.   When a Chinese millionaire( he claims to be) Youtuber who releases a video titled “Why reading books keeps you broke” and a year later another one “My recommendation of books for grand success” you should be wise to tell him to jump from Victoria Falls.   These self-improvement gurus sell you delusions.   They say they have those little tricks that only they know that if you use, everything in your life will be perfect. Those little tricks. We are just “making of a to-do-list before sleeping” away from becoming the next Bill Gates.   There are no little tricks.   There is no success-mantra.   Self-improvement is a trap for 99% of the people. You can't do that unless you are very, very strong.   If you are looking for easy ways, you will only keep wasting your time forgetting that your time on this planet is limited, as alive humans that is.   Also, I feel that people who claim to read like a book a day or promote it are idiots. You retain nothing. When you do read a good book, you read slow, sometimes a whole paragraph, again and again, dwelling on it, trying to internalize its knowledge. You try to understand. You think. It takes time.   It's better to read a good book 10 times than 1000 stupid ones.   So be choosy. Read from the guys who actually know something, not some wannabe ‘influencers’.   Edit: Think And Grow Rich was written as a result of a project assigned to Napoleon Hill by Andrew Carnegie(the 2nd richest man in recent history). He was asked to study the most successful people on the planet and document which characteristics made them great. He did extensive work in studying hundreds of the most successful people of that time. The result was that little book.   Nowadays some people just study Instagram algorithms and think of themselves as a Dale Carnegie or Anthony Robbins. By Nupur Nishant, Quora Profits from free accurate cryptos signals: https://www.predictmag.com/    
    • there is no avoiding loses to be honest, its just how the market is. you win some and hopefully more, but u do lose some. 
    • $CSCO Cisco Systems stock, nice top of range breakout, from Stocks to Watch at https://stockconsultant.com/?CSCOSEPN Septerna stock watch for a bottom breakout, good upside price gap
    • $CSCO Cisco Systems stock, nice top of range breakout, from Stocks to Watch at https://stockconsultant.com/?CSCOSEPN Septerna stock watch for a bottom breakout, good upside price gap
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.