Count me stupid, too. I rely on my brokerage screen to show both contracts on rollover day, and for my charting software, set to continuous contract, to show the change. When the rollover is really slow, I wait until the new contract's cum vol exceeds the old and the spread settles down before I even think about trading. The confluence today with the FOMC unannouncement makes it a real snoozer. Betcha those twenty little snot posters aren't even trading any more. One benefit of being and old and grumpy and slow trader is that they come and go in time with the grub killing seasons.
LOL. When I first started this futures racket about 10 years ago, I had never heard of rollover. I knew nothing. The next day (Friday) I thought it was a holiday or something. You think it is bad trying to remember four times a year, throw in gold and oil into the mix. At first your head is spinning trying to remember all these days. Anyway, this thread keeps going, and going ......... This thread is almost 8 years old !
Indeed. It's even worse when the rollover isn't the second Thursday. This thread is old because it's useful, unlike the rest of this place. I knew it was dying when they pushed the sponsor announcements to the top and shithead posters exceeded posters with something informative to say by about 20:1. I rarely read anything any more, just scan the thread titles to see if there might be references to external articles of real interest.
IB has the capability to automatically rollover future contracts for some months. It's pretty cool. Charts are updated as well.
I meant it is ok for me to replace it on my screen a day early since I don't actually trade it anymore otherwise, good deal on getting out of that NQ at a decent spread
That's why I chart and quote the continuous contract. The less thinking I have to do at my age, the better. Yep, the distribution of the NQ spread has deteriorated noticeably in recent months. I chart the spread and stand aside when it has the shits.
IB's automatic roll seems to happen a day or so before the volume actually shifts. So imo the heads up is nice, but I need to shift the contract and charts manually for trading purposes.