A futures contract has an end date. MGC today, for example, is one specific delivery month. Before that month arrives, trading moves to the next contract. The day most trading moves across is called the roll. The old and new contracts trade at different prices, so Wildflower handles the switch rather than mixing the two.
When the roll happens
Wildflower keeps a roll calendar for every market it offers, worked out from each product's own schedule. The roll is the day trading moves, which is not the same day the old contract expires.
- Stock index futures (the S&P, Nasdaq, Dow and Russell futures and their micros) roll on the Monday before their quarterly expiry Friday. That is the exchange's own published roll date.
- Metals roll ahead of the delivery period, which starts in the month before the contract's own month.
- Currencies roll ahead of their quarterly expiry date.
- Energy and bitcoin roll every month.
What Wildflower does around each roll
- Two days before the pause starts, a banner tells you the roll is coming, that trading on that market will pause, and that your settings carry over.
- From 12 hours before the roll to 6 hours after it, no new positions open on that market. This is the blackout. Each refused entry is recorded on the Activity page's Everything else tab, so a quiet spell has a reason.
- After the switch, a banner confirms the new contract, and trading carries on with it. For a day afterwards, the banner names the contract now trading.
How the switch happens
While an account runs, Wildflower checks every 15 minutes which contract your broker calls current for each market. When that changes, Wildflower moves its price feed and the account's records to the new contract. You do not need to do anything.
Your broker does not always move on the same day as the roll calendar. While the two name different contracts, no new positions open on that market. Open positions are managed and closed as normal. Each refusal is recorded, and trading resumes by itself once your broker moves to the new contract.
Holding through a roll
Positions are closed before each day's session close, and the switch takes effect at the next session open. So a position is not carried across the switch. The blackout covers the hours around the roll, when trading in the old contract is drying up.
The dates are worked out, not promised
Roll days come from each exchange's published schedule and from where each product's trading actually moves. They are accurate to within a day or two, because exchanges can shift dates around holidays. The pause is long enough to cover that. If Wildflower does not know a market's roll schedule, that market is not offered in the strategy builder, and Wildflower refuses entries on it.
What can go wrong
If a market goes quiet for part of a day, check the banner and the Everything else tab first. A roll pause is planned, short, and ends by itself.