TWS offered to rollover my NQ futures on Friday (or was it Thursday?). In any case the DEC NQs were sold but no MAR NQs were bought. I've ended up with no future(s)! Did I misunderstand what was being offered, or did IB/TWS scew up? Thanks, Steve
I think you may have misunderstood. Please see the attached for the pop-up which I believe you are referring to.
Steve, how do you get that feature back after pressing something and somehow cancelling it (is it configure/auto futures rollover and then tick box?). hle I'm here, is it the futures combo feature that is used for actual R/O?
NQ DEC06 expired last Friday. That is the reason why it is gone. The TWS rollover feature does not buy or sell anything.
Question: what happens with the long position in case the futures contract was never sold and has expired? Does the investor have to buy the underlying commodity after expiration or the contract is closed out by the brokerage firm and this way delivery is prevented?
IB states they will close out your position before delivery. See here: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...calDeliveryLiquidationRules.php?ib_entity=llc
There is no delivery to prevent for NQ. In fact, most existing futures contracts worldwide -- including all equity index and currency futures -- are subject to cash settlement, as opposed to physical delivery. If you, the holder of either a long or a short position in such a future, take no action on expiration date, you'll automatically, regardless of who your broker is: 1) have that position closed; and 2) get debit or credit, if any, for the difference between the final settlement price and the underlying reference price.