question about front month of brent oil and WTI

[orangelam]

Hi,
for brent crude oil, the front month is Mar19 contract with settlement date 1/31/2019 as stated from ICE website https://www.theice.com/products/219/Brent-Crude-Futures/expiry.

for WTI, the front month is Feb19 with settlement date 1/22/2019 as stated from CME website https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude_product_calendar_futures.html

does anyone know why their front month are different? is it for long history already?

 

[Overnight]

Brent crude and WTI crude are two completely differently crude products, thus the different specs across two different exchanges.

 

[Overnight]

Oh, that is something you may not realize...Each exchange sets their own rules on the contract expiry for the products they offer for trading.

 

[orangelam]

Oh, that is something you may not realize...Each exchange sets their own rules on the contract expiry for the products they offer for trading.

ya i see. i had better follow their rule

 

[orangelam]

does anyone know why now the gold futures of FEB 2019 is of the greatest volume?? the front month should be Jan 2019 and sensibly, it should be of the greatest volume.

and i also found that, many sources quoting gold FEB 2019 as the commodity price instead of Jan 2019. is it the nature and usual practice of gold market?

for reference
https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/me...settlements_futures.html#tradeDate=12/31/2018

 

[Overnight]

does anyone know why now the gold futures of FEB 2019 is of the greatest volume?? the front month should be Jan 2019 and sensibly, it should be of the greatest volume.

and i also found that, many sources quoting gold FEB 2019 as the commodity price instead of Jan 2019. is it the nature and usual practice of gold market?

for reference
https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/metals/precious/gold_quotes_settlements_futures.html#tradeDate=12/31/2018

Indeed, I always found it odd in how volume skips months, but figure it has something to do with TAS, as those are the most active months volume-wise. You'll see those months pop up at the rollover deadline.

Trading at Settlement (TAS) is allowed in the first ,second and third nearby active contract months- February, April, June, August and December. TAS transactions may be executed at the current day’s settlement price or at any valid price increment up to 10 ticks higher or lower than the settlement price.

 

[orangelam]

Indeed, I always found it odd in how volume skips months, but figure it has something to do with TAS, as those are the most active months volume-wise. You'll see those months pop up at the rollover deadline.

Trading at Settlement (TAS) is allowed in the first ,second and third nearby active contract months- February, April, June, August and December. TAS transactions may be executed at the current day’s settlement price or at any valid price increment up to 10 ticks higher or lower than the settlement price.

thanks a lot. I guess TAS occurs after the market close and the volume was aggregated on that day. so if right after market close, the volume was still the highest for front month (say Jan 2019) and after some hrs, ppl execute at TAS and then the volume became higher for Feb2019. but the question is, why those parties would like to execute the Feb2019 contract?