Quote from nonlinear5:
...If you want to continue to be long, you simply sell the Dec contract and simultaneously buy the March contract. There is no other way, so I am not sure what it is that you are looking for.
That requires two trade executions (two independent clicks of the button)...closing the trade in the prior contract and then opening a new trade in the forward (new) contract.
In contrast, I think the OP (tlopez51) is talking about a platform that does both in one trade execution (one click of the button) that will close the old contract month while opening a position in the new contract month at the exact same time.
Yet, the commissions remain exactly the same regardless the route taken.
Here's an analogy. Pretend there's two good looking gals. Lets call them Gal #1 and Gal #2.
Gal #1 is already in your house and you then open the door for her to leave your house. After she leaves, you close the door. A second later you then hear a knock and you open the door again to allow Gal #2 to enter your home resulting in two door openings. In contrast, at the TD home, you can open the door so that Gal #1 leaves and then while the door is still open, Gal #2 enters the home resulting in you only having to open the door once.
Simply, the OP just wants to open the door only
once to allow one gal to leave and the other gal to enter his home at the exact same time even though the cost (commissions) is exactly the same as if he had open the door twice.
Another way to look at it. Two door openings (two clicks of the mouse) increases the chance of an error in comparison to only having the need to open the door once (one click of the mouse).
For example, I myself had a problem trade several years back involving when I was closing a Emini TF futures trade (10 contracts) in the prior contract month and then simultaneously (split second later) click the button to open a 10 contract trade in the new contract month. The problem occurred was that I thought I had clicked the sell button for the old Emini TF contract month that was soon to expire or there was a hiccup in the trading platform in closing the contracts of the old contract month. Thus, I then had two open positions in different contract months. Yeah, I easily fixed the problem but only after about 30 seconds when I realized there was a problem.
Had I had a "one click" button for closing the old contract month and opening a new position in the new contract month...that problem would not have occurred and I would have saved 4 ticks in the old contract month because it retraced against against my position by 4 ticks ($40 per contract or $400 for the 10 contract position) prior to me realizing I still had the trade.
My question now for the OP (tlopez51), if you don't get a fill in closing the position of the old contract month...does TD automatically
not fill in your position for the new contract month to prevent you from having open positions in two different contract months.
