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Contract Rollover

Contract Rollover

Trading

Definition

The rollover from a contract approaching expiration to the next month's contract. In index contracts (ES, NQ, MES, MNQ), there is a contract for each quarter, and about a week before expiration, most of the volume shifts to the next contract. A day trader must ensure their chart and orders are on the correct contract.

Detailed explanation

Each contract is marked with an expiration month letter and year: H for March, M for June, U for September, and Z for December. The December 2026 ES contract appears on some platforms as ESZ6 and on others as ES 12-26. Index contracts expire on the third Friday of the contract month. In a prop account, there is no need to roll a position, because everything is closed before the end of the day anyway. What you do need to do: change the contract in the chart, in order templates, and in copy tools, so as not to trade an old contract with little trading volume and a wide spread.

An example from the prop world

In the week before the December 2026 expiration, a trader still working on ES 12-26 in NinjaTrader switches to ES 03-27, because that's where the volume moves. If they stay on the old contract, their fills will be in a contract that is barely traded.

Futures contract

A standard agreement to buy or sell an asset at a price set today, for a future date. Prop firm traders do not hold the contract until expiration: they enter and exit on the same day, profiting or losing from price movement. Each contract pre-defines how many dollars each movement is worth.

ES contract

The S&P 500 mini futures contract, one of the most traded contracts in the world. Each point is worth $50, and the tick is 0.25 points, meaning $12.50 per contract.

NQ contract

The Nasdaq-100 mini futures contract. Each point is worth $20, and the tick is 0.25 points, meaning $5 per contract. It is more volatile than ES, and therefore popular with scalpers and risky for small accounts.

Futures trading day

The futures trading day doesn't start in the morning: it opens the evening before, at 18:00 New York time, and closes the afternoon of the next day. According to this boundary, firms reset the daily loss limit, calculate the EOD drawdown floor, and count trading days.

Trade copying

Automatically duplicating every trade from a lead account to follower accounts, so you trade once across several accounts. It's done with software such as TradeSyncer or Replikanto, or with a copy tool built into the platform.

News trading policy

This is a risk management rule in funded trading accounts that prohibits traders from opening, closing or modifying active positions within a set time window (usually a few minutes) before, during and after the release of major high-impact economic events (Tier One).