Futures Pages: Support and DocumentationFind help and documentation on each page within the Futures tab using the index below. This documentation explains how each page is set up, with tips on how to best use the information.
The Commodities Trading Signals Summary is a complete guide of today's Opinions. The Summary Page links to a detailed page for each Indicator's Buy/Sell/Hold rating.
 The first category on the Summary page—the Overall Opinion—lists the commodity contracts that are at a 100% buy or a 100% sell configuration. The second category—Today's New Indicators—contains the listing of commodity contracts whose indicators have changed to a new buy, sell or hold signal for the time period selected at the top of the Summary page. Each of these lists have a subset of contracts, which can be accessed by clicking on the contract listing for each box.  Time Frame Current | Daily
Indicator Pages When you click the link to view stocks for a specific indicator (the new Buys, Holds, or Sells), you are presented with an Indicator page showing all the ticker symbols in that group. Note: The Indicator page shows each contract's Overall Opinion – the combination of all 13 technical indicators – as well as its combined Short, Medium and Long-Term Opinion for the time period selected on the Summary page. In the example below, you are viewing the futures contracts that have Current New Hold Signals for TrendSpotter. The Opinions shown are NOT just the opinions for TrendSpotter, but rather the overall percentages for all 13 indicators.
Clicking on the $ icon in the Links column will show the performance summary of this trading strategy over the past 5-years:
Views The Detailed Indicator pages contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the contracts listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, Cheat Sheet, and Performance pages.
The Main View is initially sorted by Symbol. You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings: To be included in the Commodities Trading Signals Summary page, a commodity contract must have at least 6-months of history in order to calculate an Opinion and a last month's Opinion.
The Most Active Futures page lists the commodity contracts with the greatest volume for the day. The page
can be classified by Futures Grouping (Full List, Currencies, Energies, Financials, Grains, Indices, Meats, Metals or Softs).
The pages are initially sorted in descending Volume sequence. You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings:  The Most Active Futures pages are updated with every page refresh. When moving between Views (Main, Technical, Performance), the list of contracts remains the same. However, each View may sort the contracts differently, resulting in a different ordering of the contracts than presented on the Chart View. The page contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the contracts listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Options for individual contracts.
Futures Momentum is a listing of the strongest futures contracts, ranked by Weighted Alpha over the past 1-year. Futures Momentum is initially displayed using the Chart View, which graphs Bullish Momentum as green bars (highest
Weighted Alpha), followed by Bearish Momentum as red bars (lowest Weighted Alpha) and shows ALL 63 major commodities.
Hint: Use the Main View to see the top and bottom ten specific contracts that appear on the Chart View, along with their Weighted Alpha.  The Futures Momentum page is re-ranked every 10 minutes. During active trading, you will see the latest price data (Last, Change, High, Low) when on the Main, Technical, and Performance Views. Please note that each View may sort the contracts differently resulting in a different ordering of the contracts as presented on the Chart View, and that prices are not automatically updated at 10-second intervals as are other pages on the site. Views The Futures Momentum page contain four standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view (other than the Chart View) contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, Cheat Sheet, and Options pages.
Weighted Alpha Barchart's "Weighted Alpha" indicator allows traders to quickly spot commodities that have shown a strong rally over the past 1-year and which may continue to rally. Alpha is a measure of how much a contract has risen or fallen over a 1-year period. Barchart.com takes this Alpha (i.e., the measure of how much a contract has changed in the 1-year period) and weights this, assigning more weight to recent activity, and less (0.5 factor) to activity at the beginning of the period. Thus the weighted alpha is a measure of 1-year growth with an emphasis on the most recent price activity. A futures contract whose price has risen over the 1-year period will have a positive Weighted Alpha. A futures contract whose price has not changed in the period will have a small Weighted Alpha and a futures contract whose price has dropped over the period will have a negative Weighted Alpha. The Weighted Alpha is limited in the amount it may change from one day to the next, thus eliminating large price jumps from the calculation.
Hot Futures is a listing of the most volatile futures contracts, ranked by Standard Deviation and compared to their past 20-periods of data (depending on the Time Frame chosen at the top of the page). Hot Futures is initially displayed using the Chart View, which graphs Bullish Movers as green bars (highest
Standard Deviation), followed by Bearish Movers as red bars (lowest Standard Deviation) and shows ALL 63 major commodities.
Hint: Use the Main View to see the top 10 specific commodity contracts that appear on the Chart View, along with their Weighted Alpha. The Hot Futures page is re-ranked every 10 minutes. During active trading, you will see the latest price data (Last, Change, High, Low) when on the Main, Technical, and Performance Views. Please note that each View may sort the contracts differently resulting in a different ordering of the contracts as presented on the Chart View, and that prices are not automatically updated at 10-second intervals as are other pages on the site. Views The Hot Futures page contain four standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view (other than the Chart View) contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, Cheat Sheet, and Options pages.
Time Frames Current | Daily | Weekly | MonthlyThere are four time-frames to choose from:
Standard Deviation Price movement on the Hot Futures page is defined in terms of the number standard deviations a contract has moved in the latest trading session. Defining price movement in terms of standard deviations is preferable to using percentage change because using standard deviations puts all the commodities on a level playing field. There are categories of commodities that are typically more volatile and have larger percentage price changes than other commodities. If we used percentage change to define price movement, then high-volatility commodities would always dominate the Hot Futures list and we would miss lower-volatility commodities that might have an unusually large movement on a particular day. In order to calculate the number of standard deviations that a contract moves in the latest session, we use the following formula:
In this formula we are simply comparing the latest price change to the standard deviation of the price returns over the last 20 sessions. We are using the "price return" for the daily change because this is how historical volatility is calculated. A "price return" is simply the natural log of the latest close divided by the previous close. Historical volatility is the measure that we use for the comparison in the denominator of our equation because historical volatility is simply defined as the standard deviation of the price returns, factored up to an annualized number. Since historical volatility is typically expressed as an annualized number, we need to reduce it to a daily figure for our daily Hot Futures calculation by dividing it by the square root of 252 (i.e., the approximate number of trading days in a year). Let's look at an example. August ICE Brent Crude (symbol: CBQ10) on the close of Tuesday, July 13, 2010 had the following input figures: 7/13/2010 close was $76.65, 7/12/2010 close was $74.37, and the 20-day historical volatility on 7/13/2010 was 27.39%. Let calculate how many standard deviations RJU10 moved on 7/13/2010:
This indicates that August ICE Brent Crude on July 13, 2010 moved by 1.75 standard deviations, which is an unusually large move. According to the normal distribution curve, we would expect a move of more than two standard deviations less than 5% of the time, indicating how unusually large ICE Brent Crude’s price change was on July 13. The Hot Futures report is also available for weekly and monthly price changes, in which case the price change over the past week or month is divided by the 20-week or 20-month standard deviation, respectively. Interpretation
Futures Market Heat Maps provide a quick visual view of the markets and how they are performing on the day, as well as how they are performing versus other sectors. Heat Maps allow you to scan the markets quickly, compare sectors, and click on a market to drill down further.
Futures Heat Maps are updated every 10 minutes throughout the trading day. Futures prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST.
Use this page to view End-of-Day futures prices by Exchange, or show End-of-Day prices for grouping within Exchange.
The first page allows you to select from the futures exchanges carried on the website.
The Futures Specifications By Market page provides a complete look at contract specs, as provided by the exchanges. You may use the links at the top of the page to find contract specifications by market category (Currencies, Energies, Financials, Grains, Indices, Meats, Metals and Softs).
Specifications for futures contracts include:
Barchart.com provides Daily (End-of-Day) and Intraday futures quotes, charts and technical analysis on all active North American futures markets. Leading futures contracts are listed in the Futures tab, and a complete commodity quote can be found using the symbol box.
The Futures Market page lists the lead contracts of the major North American Futures Markets, listed by the eight distinct commodity groups. Sub-pages, listing additional contracts on each of the futures groups, are available by clicking on the group link. You can switch between Current Prices (Intraday) and End-of-Day prices using the links at the top of the quoteboards: 
All Futures pages are updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Futures prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and are listed in CST. End-of-day prices by commodity are updated by 7pm CST each evening, and include the previous session's Volume and Open Interest information. Intraday prices by commodity will always show prices from the latest session of the market. The 's' after the last price indicates the price has settled for the day. Full List | Currencies | Energies | Financials | Grains | Indices | Meats | Metals | SoftsYou may access any of the major commodity groupings by clicking the links shown at the top of the Futures pages. Once you select an individual commodity, you can view all the contracts using intraday (Current Prices) or by End-of-Day prices. This commodities page also allows you to view the Options Quotes (Current or End-of-Day prices in Merged or Split view), Futures Spreads, Options Spreads, and Synthetic Spreads. You may also view Contract Specs from this commodities page. The Futures Market pages contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Options for the individual commodity contract.
Once on a Commodity page, Barchart.com provides Current (intraday) and End-of-Day (daily) futures prices, Options Quotes (Current or End-of-Day prices in Merged or Split view), and Spread Quotes (Futures Spreads, Options Spreads, and Synthetic Spreads).
Current Prices | End-of-Day Prices | Options Quotes | Spread Quotes | Profile
End-of-Day prices are updated at 8pm CST each evening, and includes the previous session volume and open interest information. The Date at the top of the End-of-Day Prices page indicates which date the data is for. The Cash Contract can be found either on the Current Prices or the End-of-Day Prices page. It is listed as the first contract at the top of the page. The Commodities pages contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Options for the individual commodity contract.
The Options Quotes page provides a way to view the Latest Options (current intra-day prices) or Daily Options (end-of-day prices). You can also view options in a Merged or Split view.
Options Quotes are updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Options prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST. Information listed at the top of the page includes:
The View setting determines how Puts and Calls are listed on the quote. A Merged view lists Puts and Calls one on top of the other, sorted by Strike Price. Puts are identified with a "P" after the Strike Price, while Calls are identified with a "C" after the Strike Price. A Split View lists Calls on the left and Puts on the right.
The All Futures Markets page shows you every commodity symbol carried on the Barchart.com site.
The page is sorted by Exchange. Within each exchange are the root symbols, name, and the general commodity grouping to which the symbol belongs.
Futures Quotes are updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Options prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST.
The Futures Highs / Lows pages show the 5-Day, 1-Month, 3-Month, 6-Month, 12-Month, Year-to-Date, 3-Year, 5-Year, or 10-Year Percent Change from the same period's High or Low price for major commodity contracts.
On the Main View, when you hover over one of the High or Low price or percent fields, you will see the date on which the new price or percent was made.  If the contract reaches a new High or Low price for the given period during the current trading session, the price and its corresponding percent is Bolded on the page as shown here:  The page initially shows a Full List (front months) for all major commodities, sorted by Commodity Group (Currencies, Energies, Financials, Grains, Indices, Meats, Metals, Softs). Using the category links at the top of the page, you can view the front month and first month out for any specific group. The page allows you to re-sort the data displayed by clicking on any of the column headings:
Differences to Note on the Time-Series Pages When viewing High/Low data for contracts, it may appear that the prices and dates do not "match" when switching between the different time-series pages. Please keep in mind that the contract that was the front-month at the time the new high or low was reached will not likely be the same as the current lead month contract featured in each of the data tables. This difference will often produce different results.
Example: On Dec 31st, 2010, the front month for Gold is February 2011 and this contract is featured on the 5-Day display. The display shows that a 5-Day high of 1422.00 for the front month (February 2011) was reached on 12/31/10:
The specific Commodity Group pages give you the option of displaying a Heat Map at the top. Just click the "Show Heat Map" link:
Performance Leaders lists commodities contracts with the highest and lowest Percent Change (the difference between Previous Close and the Last Price). This page can help you identify the commodities with the most price movement from the close of the market yesterday. The Futures Performance Leaders page is re-ranked every 10 minutes. During active trading, you will see the latest price data (Last, Change, High, Low) when on the Main, Technical, and Performance Views. Please note that each View may sort the contracts differently resulting in a different ordering of the contracts as presented on the Chart View, and that prices are not automatically updated at 10-second intervals as are other pages on the site.
Views The Performance Leaders pages contain four standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view (other than the Chart View) contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, Cheat Sheet, and Options pages.
Time Frames A number of time frames are available in the left navigation menu, including:
News and Commentary on the Futures Markets is provided by a number of sources:
The Futures Screener allows you to search through futures commodity contracts using unlimited filters that you apply. When you first load the page, all commodity contracts are shown. Other screener options include:
As you select a filter to apply to the list, the number of commodity contracts that match your criteria are displayed on the screen. You can continue to apply as many filters as necessary until you achieve the desired results. Available filters include:
To drill-down in any of the screener programs, you will apply a Filter.
IMPORTANT! Always click the "Show Results" button to view the symbols found by the screener with the filters you've chosen. As you add filters to the screener and click the Show Results" button, a list is formed at the bottom of the screen with your results. For most filters, a column will also be added to the list to show the applicable data. You may remove the symbol Name or Last Price by unchecking the boxes at the top of the screener.
To remove a filter from a screener, click the To Save the screener, click the "Save as New" link just above the "Show Results" button. You will be asked to give the screener a name.
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Go to the
to the left of the screener, or click the "Clear All Filters" link to remove all the filters and start again.