Why do Index Futures Roll Over?

If there nothing is actually being 'delivered.'
With oil futures and all commodity futures you have delivery of the underlying.
With equity options you have delivery of the underlying.
Just curious.

 

They have to roll over because they are round...

Seriously, futures are contracts and they have a expiration date because this is a term contract, just like your insurance policy...

 

Index Futures settle, they just settle in CASH instead of the underlying commodity.

 

It helps your broker get added commissions -- imagine if they could force you to trade a stock every 3 months! :eek:

 

if they would not roll over, how would you price equity futures ? ? ? ?

 

I think they do it to screw up everyones charts.

There are so many great TA guys out there, they had to do something to confuse them

 

Futures contracts roll because you are trading a speculative contract on the underlying commodity.

When you trade the March Emini S&P, you are speculating where the underlying contract will be priced at expiration in March.