The Individual Futures Group (IFG) is a popular choice for portfolios because it includes a revolving selection of the most active contracts. This is a no-maintenance alternative to selecting Normal Prices.
The user-defined settings for Individual Futures Group are shown here:
You'll need to select the appropriate response for each of the following:
Contracts
When creating an Individual Futures Group, click the down arrow symbol to the right of the text box under "Contracts," then select from one to ten contracts to be automatically included in your portfolio or displayed as a chart. A larger value may be typed into the box, as desired.
As contracts grow near (or nearer) to their expiration month, they move into the window for inclusion in the Individual Futures Group, which is determined by this value. An Individual Futures group might include all contracts, the five nearest contracts, or perhaps just the nearest one or two.
Include Cash: If you would like the cash price automatically included (where available), check the "Include Cash" box by clicking it.
Rolling
When creating an Individual Futures Group, you must identify the parameters for adding and removing contracts from your portfolio through the "Rolling" settings.
Day from start of month - Enter the date of the expiration month when the contract that is closest to delivery should be omitted from your list. For example, 1 means the contract should be dropped on the first day of the month. 15 means that the lead contract is dropped on the 15th of the month.
Months Prior - This points to which month the "day from start of month" (above) refers. 0 indicates no months prior, so the date listed above is in the expiration month. Use 1 for the month before the expiration month, 2 for two months prior, etc.
If you want export format data files to be deleted from your hard drive as they are removed from the Individual Futures Group list, select the required portfolio from the Portfolio Manager panel and then click the Portfolio menu. From the Portfolio menu, click Edit Portfolio Settings. Go to the "General" tab and make sure the option, "Delete Expiring Contracts for Individual Futures Group" is checked. Naturally, if you don't want IFG export files automatically deleted, make sure the prompt is NOT checked! It is important to note that the act of removing a contact from your portfolio through the Individual Futures Group can also result in the removal of any corresponding export format files from your hard drive.
