That's a very funny comment. When you get noticed of intent to deliver, you get a warehouse recipt, or warrant, not physicals, which the broker is obliged to settle. You seem to be more concerned that your customers lack the knowledge of how deliveries work and that you will have to liquidate the delivery and be stuck with any money difference. If you think having a delivery dep't is expensive, you're not in the futures game.
ids -- can you update the link you posted to include QM and similar futures (I assume the other energy mini futures settle the same way). I stupidly didn't check the expiration date but then I was confused why the position wasn't liquidated.....as would be implied by the link you posted. Tom Cole -- I'd have to disagree -- if you want to take delivery of IPE oil I seriously doubt you're buying the futures at IB (especially knowing up front they don't allow delivery). IB is strictly for hedgers and speculators.....and those idiots among us who don't check expiration dates can also feel safe they won't end up owning 5000 barrels of oil
Knowing expiration dates is worthwhile, but, if you check volumes, you'll see them start to tail off as first notice day rears its head, so not that difficult to figure out. As far as trading around delivery dates, you need to remember that oldest longs get delivered first, so, specs tend not to be oldest, but perceive the risk of a delivery as very high. The ability to trade the differential between expiring month and new month is very important and profitable. Newbie specs dont understand the risk and will virtually pay any price to roll out of their position, and some firms will force liquidations, so I like trading into deliveries a lot.
I was actually watching volume, but on QM the volume didn't switch until Thursday morning. Since my trades usually end in 3 days (and this was the third day) I decided to wait and see if I could close the trade before expiration (thinking I had about a week like you do when ES and NQ roll over). Then I noticed there were no bid/ask prices, checked the expiration date, and started banging my head against the keyboard I assume the volume moves differently for CL although I haven't checked. SSB