This is about V11.1.
Please also refer to this topic.
Maverick is correct of course, and I have been vague; I will try to correct myself where I deem it necessary. I like to add that so much is vague about the functionality of the “XXXX” feature (see my post in the given link), that it may take a year to understand a. how it really works and b. that it has been set up wrongly (sorry PRT / @Maverick !).
Do notice that the “takes a year” is in order because you only have rare occasions to obtain experience (like four events per year on USA futures or DAX).
Additionally notice that within PRT we have the Futures ending at “XXXX” (like NQXXXX). These represent the Future in its infinite history.
At least today this appears not entirely correct;
E.g. the NQ0321 also shows all the history there is on this future (say from many years back).
[RantOn]
If one really uses the XXXX version and you have a position in a one of concern and you have a chart on-screen (say forever), all will be a big mess, because PRT removes your old contract at the moment PRT itself tells that the future “has been rolled over”. With e.g. (USA) NQ, this period of rolling over lasts a week, but at the day you can trade the new contract, the old one is removed from the screen. NOTICE : Without you noticing that, except for that your position seems to have vanished. Point in case : the ticker for PRT remains to be NQXXXX and only when observing the description in detail, you would see it is the Only0321 (instead of Only 1220).
The “commercial expression” PRT is allowed to have regarding the XXXX feature is IMHO only this one :
When you use the XXXX tickers instead of the underlying “Only” tickers, you do not need to be concerned about charts being replaced with the new contracts, because PRT does this for you. <- Yes, but only if you don’t have a position in them.
Now please relate this to my remark about the “Yes” in my first post in the linked topic. BUT also that I apparently did not know what Auto Roll Data in TWS exactly are (or I did not read sufficiently well – anyway, my bad).
What this comes to is that the CHART rolls over all right. The contract does not (or what I understand of it, PRT can not do this, but TWS could).
This is all fine;
Where PRT hopelessly fails is that thus
a. my contract is removed from the chart because the chart is replaced with the underlying new contract and
b. PRT in a quite vague procedure tells me that I have a running contract, and if I perhaps would like to show that. Uh … (it should not have been removed from my screen).
(see first attachment).
It is the idea that I click on Open Chart, with the notice that I may have 10 charts with positions, all removed, and I receive 10 of these messages subsequently. Next I click Open 10 times and I end up with 10 new charts (which are my old charts) now all denoted “Only” of the old contract, still running.
My screen ends up in a big mess, and somehow I need to position my charts with running positions, which obviously should be where they ever were. I mean, do you have x spare screens for this ? I don’t.
Mind you, the roll over (for USA, not German DAX) lasts a week. Why the heck should my positions be removed from the screen, while they are totally valid for one week more.
Again addressing @Maverick, please, also see the 2nd attachment;
That popup, always appearing in the bottom-right corner after start up, and which will stay there unless you cross it away for the session, sufficiently tells me that I have to undertake some action. Otoh, new to Futures, “Rolled derivatives” ? Have they really at the first day of this week ? Or will they be one week and 1 day later ?
On a side note, and this will be lacking experience once again, when I finally get this for the e.g. NQ, I think I will know for DAX, but I end up knowing nothing because for DAX only one day of “expiring” exists, and that one will be gone for real the next day (Friday at 12:00). And where this one lasts 3 months, e.g. the French CAC lasts one month only and … again … it may take a year before you are acquainted.
And in the midst of this, PRT throws her own confusing sauce …
Referring to the one “Commercial Statement” PRT could have, it is way way better to not have the XXXX version in your charts, but the Only version. Thus (see third attachment), the one active there instead of the possible selection in the first line of the grid you see there.
If you do it like that, the open position is not removed from the “old” XXXX chart, and you also don’t end up with new charts all over the place. You now can take your time to replace e.g. Only1220 with Only0321.
[/RantOn] 🙂
I am quite confident that the XXXX feature has taken a LOT of effort to let work in the first place, but it only brings misery, mostly (yep) ending up with many Futures double in your portfolio (old plus new) because you can’t keep track of them.
Removing XXXX all together seems a waste of this effort. To me it looks like the best idea to just not replace the e.g. XXXX1220 with the XXXX0321 version. Just let it be, let the popups be and maybe … just maybe change the message with the blue Question Mark (first attachment) into one which lets you choose the new XXXX contract (0321) in a new window. Now I can (gradually) close the old contract and obtain a new position in the new contract. When done, I will replace the old (chart) contract with the new one.
Or do I miss anything ?
Best regards, and thanks,
Peter
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