Futures Expiration Warning

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1. What This Tool Does

EP_FuturesExpiration is a free, standalone TradeStation TradingApp that tells you which of your futures contracts are running out of time — and, for physically delivered contracts, when you risk being assigned delivery.

Type in the contracts you're holding or watching, and it hands back a color-coded table: how many days each one has left, when to roll, and which ones need attention right now.

A list of contracts → expiration dates, first notice dates, and a plain-language status for each

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1.1 Who Is This For

Anyone trading dated futures contracts who would rather not find out about an expiration by accident. It matters most if you trade physically delivered markets — crude, gold, silver, grains — where the date that can hurt you arrives before expiration and isn't the one most people watch.

You do not need to be a programmer. Everything is point-and-click, and the only prerequisite is TradeStation itself.

1.2 How It Fits Into Your TradeStation Workflow

It's a stand-alone TradingApp — no chart required, and no dependency on the paid EdgeProof app. Open it from TradeStation Apps like any other TradingApp and it stays available for the rest of your session.

This is a check you run, not a background alarm. It won't interrupt you or pop up on its own — you press the button when you want to know where things stand.

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2. Installation

1. Import (double-click) EP_FuturesExpiration.eld.
2. In any Workspace, go to TradeStation Apps and click EP_FuturesExpiration.

That's it — no separate installer and nothing to configure before first use.

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3. Quick Start

1. Enter your contracts in Symbols, comma-separated — for example ESU26,GCQ26,CU26.
2. Set Days before Expiration (§4.1) — how much warning you want.
3. Click Check Expiration Date.

Each contract is looked up in turn and its row fills in as the answer arrives. A handful of symbols takes a moment; the progress bar shows how far along it is.

Use dated contract symbols, not continuous ones. ESU26 works. @ES does not — a continuous contract is a stitched-together price history that never expires, so there's no date to warn you about. Continuous symbols come back as No data.

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4. Field Reference

4.1 Settings

4.2 Buttons

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5. Reading the Results

Each contract gets one row:

5.1 Status

First Notice is the one to watch on physically delivered contracts. For gold, silver, crude and grains it can fall weeks before expiration. Gold Aug 2026 stops trading on 27 August, but first notice is 31 July — nearly a month earlier. Watching only the expiration date on those markets means watching the wrong date.

Cash-settled index futures — ES, NQ, RTY, YM — have no first notice date at all. They settle in cash, so there's nothing to deliver and no early deadline. That column will always show - for them, and that's correct.

5.2 Recommended Roll

For index futures this is 8 days before expiration, which is when trading volume moves to the next contract. You can hold past it, but you'll be trading a thinning market and your fills will show it.

For physically delivered contracts, this matches the Safety Date instead. There's no separate roll window on those — first notice is the deadline, and no roll advice should ever point past it.

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6. Tips & Troubleshooting

• A row says "No data". Either the symbol is continuous (@ES, @C), or it isn't a futures contract at all. Check the Description column on the rows that did work — if a symbol you expected is missing entirely, it's this.

• Careful with short symbol roots. Some root symbols collide with stocks. CL on its own is Colgate-Palmolive, not crude oil — crude is CLV26 or similar. C is Citigroup, not corn. Always include the month and year, and use the Description column to confirm you got the contract you meant.

• Symbols may not look how you expect. Corn is CU26, not ZCU26, in TradeStation. If a contract comes back as No data, check the symbol format in a chart first.

• Run it while the market is open. The tool reads live contract information from TradeStation, so results are most reliable during a trading session.

• A red URGENT row on a market you don't hold is nothing to worry about. The tool doesn't know your positions — it reports on the contracts you typed in. The warning matters only if you're actually holding that contract.

• Nothing happens automatically. Results reflect the moment you pressed the button. Press it again whenever you want a fresh check.