I have a question for people out there experienced at position trading futures. When doing chart analysis for longer term futures trades, I find that charts for different expiration months often have contradictory information. For example a bullish pattern may appear on the May and September charts but a bearish pattern is on the June and July charts. Or the charts may tell you to trade in the same direction but June is telling you to enter now and July says you won't have an entry signal for a couple of days. Obviously a continuous contract chart may be the best solution but many of the continuous contract charts on eSignal (the software I use) are not very helpful. Furthermore they often contradict what the regular non-continous contract charts say. I would appreciate any insight you may have about what charts to use and/or how to resolve these contradictions. Thank you.
Smoothing When I dealt with this I was getting my data from C.S.I. Try using continuous charts 91 days out where the bulk of the volume should be for your analysis. Trade the more volatile near contracts, using stops on the near. CSI perputual data.
================= T trader; Different time frames in all markets can give conflicting signals; including hourly front month charts & daily/weekly front month. Personably use the liquid front month contract ; & consider the medium & weekly/daily & smaller trend for that contract. Sure, do diversification including but not limited to time ; however thats with the liquid front month also.[June in ES] I am sure those older turtles like Curtis Faith[elite nickname inflector] averaged longer trades than me; remember a particular oil trade example he used ; again liquid front month contract.