Rollover is when a new contract month becomes the dominant contract in terms of new volume, for both pit (open outcry) and electronic trading sessions. For stock index futures, rollover officially begins one week before the expiration of the nearest contract. So today, the section of the trading floor pits previously devoted to trading March contracts are now trading June, and the March indices are moved to the back, or smaller section of the pit. On the trading floor, June will be is now referred to as the "front month" insofar as stock index futures trading is concerned.
We don't have quite the same issue with electronic platforms, so the Globex and ICE platforms' rollover is more symbolic...as we will now see day-traders increasingly focusing more of their trading in the June contracts and position traders start unwinding March positions and re-establishing them in the June.
Both CME Group and ICE now report what is referred to as the "Pace of the Roll" available online.
Both CME Group and ICE now report what is referred to as the "Pace of the Roll" available online.
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