Instrument Mgr should default to front month?

[LG]

When I am adding a new instrument via instrument manager, I thought that it would default to the front month of the contract.

This does not seem to be the case for ZN, for example. According to

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/interest-rates/us-treasury/10-year-us-treasury-note_product_calendar_futures.html

the front month is June 2010 and the expiry date is 6/21/10.
But when I choose that contract in Instrument Manager, it automatically comes up as 09-10.

This is occurring in several instruments that I am starting to work with -- I'm not that familiar with them -- am I doing something wrong? How does Instrument Manager calculate what is the front month?

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello LG,

Thank you for your post.

Which version of NinjaTrader are you using? (Help > About)

[LG]

I'm using NT7b16

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello LG,

Thank you for the clarification.

This is due to an instrument option that effects roll-over dates.

From the Control Center, please click Tools > Instrument Manager.
In the Instrument Manager, select ZN from the list on the right, then click Edit.
In the instrument editor, navigate to the Misc tab and scroll down to the bottom of the window.
Under the 'Contract Months' section, click on the button with three dots to the right side of the window. (see attached)

In the Contract Months window, select the 06-10 contract.
On the right side of the window, you can edit the roll-over date to any date you would like. NinjaTrader will then use this date to determine when to automatically select the 09-10 contract.

[LG]

Okay.
But how do I calculate the correct "offset" for that date?

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi LG,

The offset will be calculated automatically after you load a merged chart. (a chart who's 'last' date is outside of the selected contract)

[LG]

and is this true even if the instrument is set to "DoNotMerge" in Merge Policy (in order to get historical data not over-ridden)

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi LG,

If you are not merging the data, no offset is used.

[LG]

Ok, not to beat a dead horse, but does the Merge setting refer to merging the historical data contained on my own computer with that on the NT server, or is it merging contracts, or what? I'm confused.
I'm not using a continuous contract.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi LG,

Sorry for the confusion - merging refers to merging data from multiple contracts.

This is not a true continuous contact, but does allow data from prior contracts to be plotted on a chart of the current.

[LG]

thx a million

[LG]

I am currently spending a lot of time manually changing the each contract month's expiration date to the correct date per that instrument's product calendar on exchange website. It is a lot of work.

I wish the contracts could default to the correct front month and expiry date (perhaps you guys just haven't gotten around to this programming work yet on NT7?) Some of the contracts are defaulting to an expiry date that is earlier to the date of the contract month (!).
[example: for 6A, contract month 12-10, default rollover date is 9/6/2010]

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi LG,

Thanks for pointing this out. I will ask that development take another look at these instruments.

[LG]

As I'm looking at this, I realize that almost none of the instruments, including ES and the ones I trade all the time, have the correct rollover dates. Maybe the rollover date that they use to send you the rollover message isn't the one from the Instrument Editor -- in which case maybe they could delete it. Thanks.