continous charts something wrong

[Tasuki]

Hello,
See attached pic. I show two charts side by side, both continous contract of CL, crude oil, both daily. Notice that the prices at the hard right edge are very different, and also notice (and this part I can't explain), at the very top the one that's clearly wrong (becuase the price of crude oil hasn't been $102 for a long while) shows the dates, "2/5/2014-5/20/2014". How can a continuous chart have an end date? That's the problem, I realize, but I don't know how to fix it. The other chart shows today's date as the end date, and it's chart is understandably correct. So, how did the other chart, the one that's wrong, get an end date on a continous chart? I thought that the very nature of continous charts was that they didn't HAVE an end date? Obviously there's something I don't understand here. Please could somebody explain, and help me avoid this frustrating problem in the future? Thanks,
Taz

[Tasuki]

p.s. I tried to right click and "reload all historical data" but that's the only thing I could think of doing, and it didn't change the chart.

[Harry]

The charts are probably both correct.

The left charts ends on May 20, 2014. The right chart ends on November 4,2014. Obviously, prices in November can be different from prices in May.

Every chart has a start date and an end date. Those dates can be selected under DataSeries settings, when you open a new chart. Just select the correct date and the date will be shown correctly,

Continuous contracts are shown as supplied by your data provider. Depending on the type of continuous contract, historical prices can be shown at a significant higher level than actual prices were at that time.

This is particularly true, if you have an instrument

-> that is nearly always in contango (see Cushing contango for CL)
-> that is frequently rolled

The contango situation moves past data up, if you use a backadjusted continuous contract. Backadjusted contracts are the appropriate tool for conducting a backtest, but they do not show absolute price levels correctly.

I may assume that the continuous contract supplied by your data provider is a backadjusted contract. This explains the higher prices this spring.

Please make sure that you understand

-> the mechanics of rolling and merging contracts
-> the contract type supplied by your data provider

There is nothing wrong with your charts.

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello Tasuki,

What data provider are you currently using?

If you right click on the ##-## chart and select "Data Series", what is the end date set to? Is that todays today, or does it say may as per the chart caption at the top? Are you able to set it to today's today?

[Tasuki]

Hi Matthew, thanks for the help.
I'm just using the Kinetick free EOD right now. Is that a problem?
So, I was able to reset the end date for today's date. We'll see tomorrow whether it updates or stays stuck.
Still don't understand why a continuous chart would have an end date.
Thanks again, we'll see what happens.
Taz

[Tasuki]

p.s. poor blind me didn't see Harry's helpful reply. Thanks, Harry! I certainly do not understand the convoluted mess that is contango and whatever its opposite is, nor do I fully grasp the complexities of merging and rolling cointracts. Wish I did, but I've never found a clear explanation written down anywhere. Not that there's any dirth of blogs explaining it all, I just haven't found one in layman's language, yet at least.
None of this would explain why I have continuous contract charts of CL (crude oil). some of which have nicely continued to update over the months, while others got stuck for some odd, unfathomable reason. My question really is, why are these continous contract charts getting stuck on a particular date (May 20, in this case), and how do you stop them from getting stuck and instead updating to the current date like other charts I have which are also continous contract charts of the same symbol (in this case, CL).
Anyway, thanks for the help!
Taz

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hi Matthew, thanks for the help.
I'm just using the Kinetick free EOD right now. Is that a problem?
So, I was able to reset the end date for today's date. We'll see tomorrow whether it updates or stays stuck.
Still don't understand why a continuous chart would have an end date.
Thanks again, we'll see what happens.
Taz

The "End Date" on your chart only signifies the last day you want to plot on the chart. It does not have anything to do with when the contract would expire (as a ##-## does not).

Typically you want the end date to be today's date to have the most recent data, however for backtesting reasons, you may want to send the end date to an earlier date.

Kinetick End of Day will work for the CL ##-## on a daily interval and I am able to load data to today. As long as the end date on the chart is set to today, you should be able to request current data by right clicking on the chart and selecting 'reload all historical data'.

If you're connecting to any other futures providers which may not support the ##-## data, it would prevent your chart from loading the recent data and you may be looking at the data that exists in your database. Please double check that the only connection you're using is Kinetick End of Day (or that you are connecting to Kinetick End of Day as the first connection).

[Tasuki]

Thanks, Matthew! I'll just make sure that the end date is the current date, and hope that this doesn't happen again (can't figure out why the charts got stalled, probably something to do with switching between the regular contract and the continuous one. I remember changing some of my charts to continous at some point, and probably messed them up in the process). Anyway, thanks again!
Taz