1. There is no such thing as the "March 1800.00" contract. The futures don't have the strike price. 2. There is no such thing as "long ES at 1800". It must be a specific contract, such as "long ESZ3 at 1800". If you want to continue to be long, you simply sell the Dec contract and simultaneously buy the March contract. There is no other way, so I am not sure what it is that you are looking for.
I know. Who would of thunk? It gets only long and winded after a while. And only kid.fx.cross knows what I am referring to since TD and IB are quite similar in the way you have access to trade the futures. I feel exceptionally lucky to be with TD. Then again, if you care to take another look at the above post, there is the word "theoretical". Have a great evening mate!
That requires two trade executions (two independent clicks of the button)...closing the trade in the prior contract and then opening a new trade in the forward (new) contract. In contrast, I think the OP (tlopez51) is talking about a platform that does both in one trade execution (one click of the button) that will close the old contract month while opening a position in the new contract month at the exact same time. Yet, the commissions remain exactly the same regardless the route taken. Here's an analogy. Pretend there's two good looking gals. Lets call them Gal #1 and Gal #2. Gal #1 is already in your house and you then open the door for her to leave your house. After she leaves, you close the door. A second later you then hear a knock and you open the door again to allow Gal #2 to enter your home resulting in two door openings. In contrast, at the TD home, you can open the door so that Gal #1 leaves and then while the door is still open, Gal #2 enters the home resulting in you only having to open the door once. Simply, the OP just wants to open the door only once to allow one gal to leave and the other gal to enter his home at the exact same time even though the cost (commissions) is exactly the same as if he had open the door twice. Another way to look at it. Two door openings (two clicks of the mouse) increases the chance of an error in comparison to only having the need to open the door once (one click of the mouse). For example, I myself had a problem trade several years back involving when I was closing a Emini TF futures trade (10 contracts) in the prior contract month and then simultaneously (split second later) click the button to open a 10 contract trade in the new contract month. The problem occurred was that I thought I had clicked the sell button for the old Emini TF contract month that was soon to expire or there was a hiccup in the trading platform in closing the contracts of the old contract month. Thus, I then had two open positions in different contract months. Yeah, I easily fixed the problem but only after about 30 seconds when I realized there was a problem. Had I had a "one click" button for closing the old contract month and opening a new position in the new contract month...that problem would not have occurred and I would have saved 4 ticks in the old contract month because it retraced against against my position by 4 ticks ($40 per contract or $400 for the 10 contract position) prior to me realizing I still had the trade. My question now for the OP (tlopez51), if you don't get a fill in closing the position of the old contract month...does TD automatically not fill in your position for the new contract month to prevent you from having open positions in two different contract months.
I like the analogy. There is also the contract price. "Assume" the ES March contract is trading lower than I am long in the Dec contract. I can still choose to roll to the same contract price in March as I was in in Dec regardless of how much lower the futures are trading for. Sure there's a price to pay for the difference but don't want to get into that here. That is not the point of my question. However, at this point in time, I am simply extending my time period until the market gets up to the contract price I had initially entered in Dec. "Presumably" I had entered higher so I am waiting for the March ES futures to catch up to my price level and go beyond it and higher. I don't realize a loss and just wait. That's it! That's choice! My broker could be on the other side of the trade for all I know. I don't care! I'm doing my thing! Lastly, when you fire off the trade it is simultaneous. No slippage! No one trade fills without the other to cause you to be stuck with contracts in Dec and Mar. I hope it's a bit more clear now. You may ask but why? I am long or short on trades to the bitter end as others like me are. I wait. I sit patiently. I don't panic! Yes I can still loose if wrong. But that's the consequence in every trade you take. You can't win 100% of the time! It's not possible! But I still get to trade my way and not the way the broker dictates. It's my money! Not theirs to say how I should or should not trade. Period! Thank you! Finally! Or maybe not!
Oh? Wasn't aware of that. Guess I will need to revisit the web site. Now Just wondering if NinjaTrader is an option with IB. Many thanks
Seems to me this entire thread is about trying to avoid slippage from one contract/time frame to another. 1. You can't "roll your position forward"... you only roll your TIME FRAME forward... and you do that with a contract which is still active after yours has expired. 2. Whether the new contract is at a lower or higher price is irrelevant. What matters is "price change after your play gets executed". 3. If the success of your strategy is dependent upon not suffering 1-2 tics slippage, you're fishing in a dry hole.
Well I'm done! Any Eagles fans out there (though I am more of a Giants fan)? Look at how they destroyed the Bears last night. Geez! It's mimicking more like what the ES is doing to the bears on wall street. Bulls on parade!
Eagles looked FIERCE last night! (Then again so did the Bears 2 weeks ago.) Looks like there are no dominant teams in either conference, so should be interesting "2nd season". I'll be watching it all on my 111", big screen. Go Broncos!!
Yeah! For sure! Then used to be an "Orange Crush" fan myself way back when. Now if that doesn't give away my edge ...