Table of Contents
Per the Trading Combine® Rules, you must only trade the “front-month” contracts for all products. The front-month contract is the most liquid of futures contracts. The futures "rollover" is a period of time when one product month is going to expire, and longer-term traders who intend to remain in the position need to "offset" their position in the expiring contract month and reopen their position in the longer term "new" contract month. Click on the link below for instructions on how to change the month of the contract:
| TSTrader™ | NinjaTrader 8 | T4 |
| MultiCharts | NinjaTrader 7 | VolFix |
To protect risk and avoid slippage, traders should trade the most active month. The most active month will be the product month with the most volume. This will start to shift to the new month starting on the date above. Follow the volume and you will be rolling into the most actively traded month.
Unfortunately, there are NO specific dates where the futures products roll! The roll happens when market participants move their positions from one contract month into another contract month prior to the front month’s contract expiration. This roll always happens in the days or even weeks prior to contract expiration. (You don’t want to take delivery of 1000 barrels of crude oil or one million bushels of soybeans do you?).
Just like an athlete needs to know what quarter, inning, or period they are playing in, a trader needs to know what contract month they are participating in. As someone who is assuming risk in the marketplace, it is important to know your product intimately. Volume will roll from contract month to contract month differently among futures products. It is important that you regularly check the volume in any market you are participating in. You may also notice that the size in the bids and offers on your DOM or ladder will start to decrease as the volume shifts to one of the deferred contract months.
| Tip: Please don't expect a notification for each and every contract roll over, however we do include notes about contract rolls for our most popular products in the in the Weekly Kickoff e-mails. If you are no longer receiving our e-mails, click here to re-subscribe. |
We understand that mistakes may happen, especially when contract months are rolling over.
If you have started the trading day trading the wrong contract month make sure that you flatten that trade. You can then roll your contract to the front month (highest volume) and continue trading. No rules will record as broken.
Please note that we do understand that mistakes can happen regarding which contract month you are trading. However, we require traders to be in the front contract month. Continued trading outside of the front month can result in a rule violation.