Rolling a position

Can anyone tell me how to roll an expiring futures contact into the next month? I have a position i'd like to keep on an expiring contract. I could close my position and take out the same position in the next contract month manually but i'm thinking there must be a better way? My broker is interactive b.

Thanks

 

If you're long (short), buy (sell) a calendar spread. For the ES, spreads are very tight at 0.05 (one-fifth of a tick) during roll week.

 

IB has a rollover tool as well. But you could also do it manually like mentioned.

 

Just do the spread... easy... Which contract?
I wouldn't let IB do it automatically.

 

Like the rest here said, you can enter a trade as a spread or simply get out of one and go into the next contract month. What market and are you long or short? Diff. markets have diff. dates for First Notice and Last Trading day and depending if you are short or long you will need to be out on certain dates. We have FN and LT dates here just scroll to the bottom.