Topics of Trade Explained » ES Roll-over Day
Rollover day is when the contract contract expires and a new leading contract begins to gain volume as traders move money into it.
The futures contract that we mainly focus on is the (ES), or the E-mini S&P-500.
Other index futures include the DOW (YM), NASDAQ (NQ), and Russell (ER2).
•2009 Options Expiration Calendar
•2010 Options Expiration Calendar
NinjaTrader video: Made for Ninja's software version-6, this is an excellent guide for rolling over ES, NQ, YM and ER2 contracts. The "How to Roll Over Futures Contracts" help guide is brief and to the point in just under 2-minutes.
Basic points to remember about Roll-over days include:
1. These contracts expire on the third Friday of the expiration months. These are March (H), June (M), September (U), and December (Z).
2. The rollover day is basically when the new contract volume begins to pick up and move from the former contract - effectively 'rolling over'. This is when we switch to begin trading the front-quarter contract. This occurs eight days before expiration, or the second Thursday of the expiration months. The exception being when the first day of the month is a Friday, then rollover is on the first Thursday of the month.
3. Volume generally shifts to the new contract at the market open (09:30 EST) on Rollover day.
4. New day trading and swing trading positions opened on rollover day should use the new contract month. You will have until the following Friday to close any expiring positions - or your broker will close them.