Futures Contract Rollover Reminder

March 7, 2019 is rollover day for CME equity products such as the E-mini S&P 500. If you are a NinjaTrader user, that means on or after March 7, you will need to roll over your contracts. For the E-mini, switch from ES 03-19 to ES 06-19. The March 2019 contract is expiring. The June 2019 contract will be the new and correct one to trade.

Some traders prefer to roll over after the official rollover date. The idea is to trade whatever contract has the most volume. Click here to view current E-mini volume levels. A day or more after the rollover, the majority of the volume should transfer into June 2019. Revisit the CME page to monitor current volume levels.

Rolling over contracts in NinjaTrader 8 is quite easy. We’ve covered this topic before, but it’s good to mention every three months or so because even veteran traders can forget. What happens if you forget to roll over your contract? Well, to start with, your charts will eventually “run dry” and you’ll see bunch of odd-looking candles (many dojis). You may also get a call from your broker asking why you’re attempting to trade an old contract.

The next related roll date is June 13, 2019.

Follow these rollover steps on or after March 7, 2019:

1. In NinjaTrader’s Control Center, go to Tools > Database Management. Providing you are following these steps on or after March 8, you should see the E-mini (ES) and possibly other markets (instruments). Click the gray Rollover button. That’s it – you’re all set!

2. Close the Database Management window and go back to your charts. Your charts should automatically reflect the new contract period. In other words, your ES 03-19 chart should now magically be ES 06-19.

These pictures demonstrate the steps above:

By the way, what a great Atlas Line trade late in the day! You can purchase the Atlas Line from this page.