These instructions will explain how to understand futures and their coding convention. Bodhi5 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 Bodhi6, click here.

If you need help selecting the Sydney Futures Exchange from the Bodhi5 menu, click here.

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 and will be removed from your database when you empty the trash.

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. Bodhi5 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.

Bodhi5 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. Bodhi5 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, Bodhi5 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.