Wheat option expiration?

Discussion in 'Options' started by heech, May 22, 2009.

  1. heech

    heech

    Hi,

    I'm trying to make sense of expiration dates on wheat futures + options. I'm looking at the CBOT contracts.

    - July wheat futures stops trading July 14th. Simple enough.

    - Here's where I'm confused: July wheat options... "For standard option contracts: The last Friday preceding the first notice day of the corresponding wheat futures contract month by at least two business days."

    Huh?

    Is the first notice day of the wheat futures contract month = July 14th? Meaning, the options expire (or exercised into long/short future position) on July 10th?
     
  2. TraDaToR

    TraDaToR

    According to IB, it's friday June 26th . First notice day is Tuesday 30 th( first day before expiration month )apparently and expiration is 2 business days before.
     
  3. heech

    heech

    Thanks... can I ask where in IB you found this info? Somewhere in the product listing?

    I haven't been able to get to "contract details" for the options within TWS.
     
  4. heech

    heech

    Great, thanks.

    Jun options are exercised into July futures (end of May).

    July options are exercised into July futures (end of June).

    August options are exercised into September futures (end of July).

    September options are exercised into September futures (end of August).

    Does that sound about right? I wonder why there aren't any November options for the December futures?
     
  5. I have called and written both IB and the exchanges as their information about expiry is often misleading and sometimes just plain wrong. Always cross reference from multiple sources, although to give the CME group credit the 2009 information is much better than 2008.
     
  6. TraDaToR

    TraDaToR

    Right click on this option on TWS, go to " contract info" and then "description". As zftrader says, IB dates are sometimes wrong but it seems that this one is right.
     
  7. heech

    heech

    Does anyone have any "war stories" about the agricultural futures that they want to share?

    How much can the future gap up or down after a weekend, for example?

    With (high beta) US equities, for example, I'd say a typical gap might be +/-3%... and during volatile periods, could be as high as 10%. What kind of gaps do you see for the agricultural futures, and how often do you see?

    And since I'll be trading automated... are there ever extreme price action (on the scale of seconds or a few minutes), due to misprints or severe liquidity issues? Does the price ever sink or soar 10% in 60 seconds?

    I know this is just a really open-ended question... and I know there's no replacement for simply watching the markets and getting a feel for the action. But hearing war stories from those who've been in the trenches can never hurt.