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FAQ Page 3 - Question 34

Q: When spread betting on Gold I'm confused about which month to trade?

A: With financial futures it's very easy to work out which is the front month to trade because they all trade the same format, March, June, September and December. But commodities don't follow this pattern, rather having their own unique series of months.

And just to confuse matters even further, a contract like Gold will quote about 8 months of the year but only something like 5 will actually attract business. The months to trade Gold in are Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug and Dec with all the other months irrelevant. So if the date is now September 5th although there will be an October Gold contract trading on the futures market, the actual front month where all the business is conducted is December.

If in doubt about questions such as this never hesitate to call your spread bet broker and ask for guidance, also make sure you find out when the contract expires and which will then be the next front month.