Trading & Markets
Contract Rollover
The quarterly migration from an expiring futures contract to the next one, when volume shifts to the new front month and everyone updates their charts.
In plain English
Index futures expire quarterly (March, June, September, December), and about a week before expiration volume rolls to the next contract. Traders switch symbols (ESH5 to ESM5, for example) and platforms offer continuous contracts that stitch the history together.
Practical prop notes: trade the front month with the volume, expect slightly odd behavior and spread activity on roll days, and know that the price difference between contracts can make levels drawn on the old contract wrong on the new one without adjustment.
- On roll Thursday a trader's June ES levels sit 25 points away from September prices.
- They redraw key levels on the September contract as its volume takes over.