These instructions will explain how to understand futures and their coding convention. Bodhi6 sources the Sydney Futures Exchange SYCOM trading (now called ASX Trade24 - 20 March 2017). This includes current and continuous contracts on Day, Night and 24 Hour trading. If you are using Bodhi5, click here.

If the Sydney Futures Exchange is not displayed in your Bodhi6 menu, please contact JustData so they can activate it.

What are current contracts:

Current contracts are the actual contracts that are traded on the Exchange. Each product (i.e. 90 Day Bank Bills) could have multiple current contracts. The amount of current contracts will depend on the period it trades (i.e. Monthly, Quarterly etc.) and how far in the future contracts are available to trade.
For example, the 90 Day Bank Bills day trading can have 20 current contracts trading at one time. This is due to the 90 Day Bank Bills having 4 current contracts a year (March, June, September & December) and projecting them forward 5-years.

Note: A current contract displayed in red has just expired.

As you can see from the picture above, each current contract has a unique code.

The table below explains the coding for the selected symbol: IRD20C.

Product Code	IR	A unique two letter code allocated to the product.
Session	D	A one letter code that is used for every product to identify the trading session. Sydney Futures sessions are: D = Day; N = Night; H = 24 Hour.
Expiry Year	20	Two number reference for the year this contract will expire. 20 = 2020; 21 = 2021; 22 = 2022; 23 = 2023 etc.
Expiry Month	C	One number or letter reference for the month this contract will expire. 1 to 9 = January to September whilst A to C = October to December.

As a general rule, most interest (volume) will be in the contract with the earliest expiry date.

What are continuous contracts:

Continuous contracts are virtual contracts made by combining the current contracts to give you a consecutive history on a future. Often there will be a jump in the data as the current contracts expire and swap to new trading contracts. Bodhi6 can automatically adjust your historical figures by a factor calculated by the software or leave them unadjusted.

The continuous contracts are highlighted in blue. There are six continuous contracts available for the NSW Base Load Electricity future.

Bodhi6 supplies three types of continuous contracts. The differences in these contracts is how they swap from one current contract to another:
1. Monthly Gann Contracts: this contract swaps out of the same month contract year to year. This means that a December Gann Contract only contains trading from December contracts. The first December contract doesn't swap to the second contract until the next years December contract starts trading. There will be a Gann contract for every future expiry month. NSW Base Load Electricity has four Gann contracts (March; June; September & December) and an example of the code is BNDC3MAR.

   Product Code	BN	A unique two letter code allocated to the product.
   Session	D	A one letter code that is used for every product to identify the trading session. Sydney Futures sessions are: D = Day; N = Night; H = 24 Hour.
   Type	C	Continuous contract
   Virtual Code	3MAR	This code represents the month of the Gann contract. It consists of one numeral/letter (1-9 = January to September & A-C = October to December) followed by a three letter abbreviation of the month.

2. Volume Contracts: the swapping of this contract is determined from an average volume price. Bodhi6 calculates which of the current contracts have the most interest (i.e. volume) and averages this value over a period of time. When the next contract starts to receive more interest, Bodhi6 swaps the continuous contract to the next current contract.
   A volume contract for NSW Base Load Electricity has the code BNDCDVOL.

   Product Code	BN	A unique two letter code allocated to the product.
   Session	D	A one letter code that is used for every product to identify the trading session. Sydney Futures sessions are: D = Day; N = Night; H = 24 Hour.
   Type	C	Continuous contract
   Virtual Code	DVOL	Four letter reference for a continuous contract that is calculated using a Volume swap.

3. Open Interest Contracts: this contract works the same way as the volume contract except it uses the average 'open interest' price to calculate the swap instead of the volume. An open interest contract for NSW Base Load Electricity has the code BNDCEOPN.

   Product Code	BN	A unique two letter code allocated to the product.
   Session	D	A one letter code that is used for every product to identify the trading session. Sydney Futures sessions are: D = Day; N = Night; H = 24 Hour.
   Type	C	Continuous contract
   Virtual Code	EOPN	Four letter reference for a continuous contract that is calculated using an Open Interest swap.

Selecting Futures in Bodhi6:

To select new products from the Bodhi menu you need to download files - so make sure you are connected to the Internet before continuing:

1. Open Bodhi6.
2. Click on the Configure button. The Configuration screen will appear.

   

   The Active tab in the Data Selection box displays the exchanges you have a Bodhi6 subscription too. If you can't see SFE: Sydney Futures Exchange listed, contact the Help Desk.
3. To view the individual futures from the SFE: Sydney Futures Exchange click on the arrow > symbol next to the exchange then double-click on Future.

   

   This will open the Future product list.

   

4. If you've never downloaded this product before you will be prompted to download the latest list of futures. To do this, go to File>Refresh.
   Note: Even if you have downloaded this list in the past, it is worth refreshing it to make sure you have all currently listed futures.

   

   The list of futures will now be downloaded from our server. When finished the list will be displayed.

   

5. You now need to decide what you want to download. The selections you make on this screen will control the amount of data you update. There are three ways to choose data from this screen:
   • The View drop-down menu
   • The Bundle box
   • Individually ticking symbols

   View menu

   The best place to start is the View drop-down menu. This menu controls the symbols that are displayed on the screen. Symbols not displayed on this screen will not be downloaded.
   The menu is divided into three parts. The first part lets you choose Families or Members (chosen by default) or Issuer (not applicable to Futures). In most product lists the default setting is preferred but in products such as Futures and Options you may wish to choose Families as this gives you more control over your selections.

   

   When you select Families the list is refreshed. Instead of displaying the individual futures symbols the list now contains one symbol for each family series. This is useful if you only want to download a few symbol series as opposed to the entire list. For example: if you changed the Bundle to None and then ticked the box next to: AFD & APD, Bodhi6 would only update all the Australian Dollar Day and SPI 200 Day contracts - the rest of the list would be ignored.

   

   The second part of the drop-down box lets you choose the type of symbols you want the list to display. You can make multiple selections here. Each product list has different defaults but for the Future product lists only Derived symbols are selected. The derived symbols for the futures are continuous contracts. Continuous contracts are created dynamically from the current contracts. To display current contracts as well as the derived, select Principal from the drop-down box. You will need to have Members selected before you can make this selection.

   

   This will refresh the list adding all the currently trading contracts.

   

   The other selection you have here is Auxiliary. This will add the Advance Decline data. When selected, nine symbols will be added to the top of the list. These symbols are dynamic to the current market and will calculate trins, ratios and lines from the available data.

   

   The final part of the drop-down box lets you choose which type of symbols you want the list to display. You can make multiple selections here. Active, Pending & Suspended symbols are chosen by default.

   

   Active	This shows all the symbols that are currently trading. Visually these symbols are displayed in Dark blue.
   Delisted	This shows all the symbols that have delisted from the exchange. Visually these symbols are displayed in Dark Red.
   Hidden	This shows any symbols the user has configured to be hidden. Through the product lists (Auto>Hide) the user can set an auto-hide function which will hide securities that haven't traded in the pre-set time period.
   Ignored	This shows any symbols the user has chosen to ignore. Through the product lists (Auto>Ignore) the user can set an auto-ignore function which will ignore securities that haven't traded in the pre-set time period.
   Pending	This shows symbols like IPO's, which haven't listed yet but may soon. Visually these symbols are displayed in Green.
   Renamed	These are symbols that have changed their ticker code. Visually these symbols are displayed in Red.
   Suspended	This shows symbols that have been suspended from trading but are still listed on the Exchange. Visually these symbols are displayed in Orange.
   Ticked	This shows the symbols you have selected by ticking the box next to their code. If you want the list to only show your ticked symbols then deselect all the other types off.
   Zombie	This shows symbols that are currently listed on the Exchange, have not been suspended but are not trading.

   Please Note: You can deselect options that are ticked/dotted by selecting them.

   Bundle box

   Once you've got the list displaying the symbols you are interested in you then need to choose them. This brings us to the Bundle box. From this box you can make the following selections:

   None	You would select this option if you don't want to update any data from this list or if you are going to tick symbols individually.
   All	Everything in the list will be selected when you choose this option.

   Ticking symbols

   If you only want to download a selection of symbols you can simply tick the box next to them in the list. You will need to make sure the Bundle is set to None before you do this.

   

6. Now that you know what is available from the View menu and how to choose symbols using the Bundle box or by ticking them, you need to make the selections you require.