Trading on expiration day

heispark

heispark

Natural Gas November contract expires today (27th):

2022-10-27_05-13-19.png


Although liquidity is very thin, there are still some people trading. However, my futures broker forces me to close my contract by the day before expiration. Is this common practice among futures brokers? I understand it's almost impossible to trade in this very thin liquidity but as a futures spread trader, there is still some opportunity to catch narrowing spread on expiration.
Any comment?
 
Let me elaborate on this more in detail. I was playing a small gambling betting Nov-Dec contract spread would become narrower closing to expiration. Yes, it can be dangerous and therefore I call it 'gambling'. However, seeing its history, spreads usually become narrower on expiration. Problem is very thin liquidity. I have to put a limit order and hope somebody take my order. I closed my order yesterday as per my broker's request with some loss. Today, if I still kept my order, I would be already in black as I expected.

2022-10-28_00-46-33.png


In this picture, I exited my long position at -0.480 yesterday and today, it once hit -0.400.
 
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It's really designed to protect both you and the broker.

You and I both know you are going to close them out. But what if you have a family issue or medical emergency or power outage and are off the grid and unable to log in - in that last 24 hours? It happens to all of us little retailers sometimes. If we can't get rid of it, then the broker has to deal with us and how we are going to transport the 10,000 mmBTU now sitting at Henry Hub in Louisiana.

It can be a real pain for everyone.
 
There is no way a one man show is able to hold physically delivered contracts into expiration day, especially big contracts like NG.

As @ktm already mentioned there could be an emergency that doesn't allow you to close the position yourself.

The only reason you'd be allowed to do this is if you trade the spot market as well and actually move around physical goods. But that requires different clearing/settlement agreements, freight handling, etc. which is only available to professional trading firms.

Just forget about sniping the roll, that's something you can do in cash settled instruments all day
 
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Here's the problem, let's say one expiration month, contract goes limit and you can't get out, do you have transportation and storage for Natural Gas? If you do, buy membership to exchange and you can trade expiration days, but brokerages are never going to allow as risk is too great for them.
 
heispark said:
Natural Gas November contract expires today (27th):

View attachment 298277

Although liquidity is very thin, there are still some people trading. However, my futures broker forces me to close my contract by the day before expiration. Is this common practice among futures brokers? I understand it's almost impossible to trade in this very thin liquidity but as a futures spread trader, there is still some opportunity to catch narrowing spread on expiration.
Any comment?
More...

Making sure that you don't take physical delivery yes I believe it's a common practice on futures contracts on which you can take physical delivery of the underlying.
 
heispark said:
Let me elaborate on this more in detail. I was playing a small gambling betting Nov-Dec contract spread would become narrower closing to expiration. Yes, it can be dangerous and therefore I call it 'gambling'. However, seeing its history, spreads usually become narrower on expiration. Problem is very thin liquidity. I have to put a limit order and hope somebody take my order. I closed my order yesterday as per my broker's request with some loss. Today, if I still kept my order, I would be already in black as I expected.

View attachment 298279

In this picture, I exited my long position at -0.480 yesterday and today, it once hit -0.400.
More...
hi OP, which tool do you use to get this spread chart?
Thanks.
 
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