For example, june contract expirty date for CL is may 19th. But on interactive CL futures, it states that last trading day is may 14th...anyone know why its 5 days before? That is crazy because most of the movement happens in the last 2 days but if i buy puts/calls i will have to exercise my option before end of 14?
Exactly. However, as I learned this week IB, at least in Europe, allows trading ICE oil to the last day. This is how few people posted here they went into negative, and could not close their positions because IB software was not able to handle negative quotes.
Are you talking about options or futures? CL options expire 5 days before futures do, and this isn’t related to IB. You need to understand what you’re trading and how it’s exercised, what is the underlying and expiration dates. All provided in specifications for whatever you’re trading (not on IB but provided by the issuer).
I agree. If a person is going to trade a product, any product, then one needs to know what the specifications are for that product including size of the contract, tick size, contract months, expiration dates and termination of trading dates, settlement process, etc. For Crude Oil futures and options the CME (CMEgroup includes NYMEX and COMEX) contract specs say; Futures Termination of Trading Trading terminates 3 business day prior to the 25th calendar day of the month prior to the contract month. Options Termination of Trading Trading terminates 7 business days before the 26th calendar of the month prior to the contract month. https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude_contractSpecs_options.html To reiterate what you said one needs to understand what one is trading. Individual stocks, ETFs, futures and any options on any of those. Best