This is the first time I get a message from the IB Trading Platform, which is the best thing since water, that one of the future position I am holding needs to be roll(ed)over or closed. I have the Auto-future rollover box checked in the feature selection. TWS help doesn't specify if this is for open positions too. Does anybody know? Thanks !
Auto-future rollover is for the line-item display in TWS. It has nothing to do with actually rolling over open contracts. Be careful. If you don't do it by the times/dates specified by IB (these vary depending on contract and within the same contract are different for longs and shorts) then IB will perforce close out those open positions for you.
it's nice as you don't have to type in the new symbols. one other feature you might find helpful when looking to roll your futures is the spread trader. it puts up all the future rolls in a seperate window with a nice matrix type format.