Regarding charting daily futures prices

#1
HI,
My basic query is as follows:
How do I plot the futures prices for a stock or indices.?
I will be more explicit:
Take for example, the March futures contract for Nifty. For this contract I will be getting the historical daily futures prices(open,high,low,close) for the preceeding two months( i.e January,FEB) plus the days in March. This means that I will get around 2 months futures data for the March contract.
Hence this implies that if I plot the candlestick chart( or the bar chart) for March Futures I will get data for only 65-70 days (assuming that I take a position around 5th march) . This is the only data by which I can go about my analysis assuming that i take a position in March.
If I decide to take a position in the March futures sometime in 15th Jan then I will get even more less data i.e 15days (from 1st Jan to 15th Jan) to base my analysis on.
The March futures expires on the last Thursday of the month, after which a new contract is introduced on the floor. So for this June contract the same rationale exists.
The main point that I am trying to put forward is that if I take only the futures prices for a particular contract as data for charting I will get at best only 2-3months data because the contract will expire after that.

So does charting of the futures prices mean that I have less data to go on than if I would have taken the spot prices???

Please advise whether the logic I have put forward is correct or not and if it is not then what is the exact procedure for technical analysis ( charting ) the futures market.

You can send me a mail to [email protected]
 
#2
Okay friend, you have got yourself all confused. What I fail to understand is that why the hell would you take a position in the March contract in january when you have the January contract open. You can easily take the position in the january contract and rollover the position at expiry.All major data providers like viratech,stoxtrend etc provide futures data under the 1st month,2nd month,3rd month format. It is assumed and advisable to take your technical trades based on the near month( 1st month) contract. i hope i have cleared your doubt
rgds
 
#3
Thanks a lot , I am starting out so I would need your guidance on this.
What is the concept of rollover?
When I take a position in the Jan contract in jan how many months futures price data will I be getting.
For example while taking a position in the Jan futures in Jan how many months futures price data do I have to take into consideration while charting
I am looking forward to your advise
rgds
 
#4
Thanks a lot , I am starting out so I would need your guidance on this.
What is the concept of rollover?
When I take a position in the Jan contract in jan how many months futures price data will I be getting.
For example while taking a position in the Jan futures in Jan how many months futures price data do I have to take into consideration while charting
I am looking forward to your advise
rgds
Did you get your doubts cleared??? if yes then will you please clear it for me.. :)
rgds
 

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