TradeStation Help

Futures Symbology

The symbology for futures symbols depends on if it is an individual contract or a continuous contract. Futures symbols also use aliases to indicate what type of trading activity they represent, electronic only, pit only, or both electronic and pit. There is also an alias available for the day session of symbols that trade electronically 24 hours a day.

The symbols used for the Order Bar and the display of data in TradeStation may differ from the symbols used for some futures and futures options.

Individual Contract Symbols

The symbology for an individual futures contract is the root (which may be one or two characters), followed by the month code, a two-digit year code, a decimal and the alias extension (optional).

Monthly Expiring Futures: [Symbol root][Month code][Year code].[Optional Extension]

For Example:

Futures contracts for the MSFT June 2017 are displayed as MSFTM17.USD-ONE'FUT (including market extensions - see below).

TradeStation-IB Symbology

The symbol syntax is: <SYMB>.<CURR>-<ROUTE>'<ASSET>

Note that there is a period after the SYMB (Ticker Symbol), a hyphen after the CURR (Currency), and an apostrophe after the ROUTE (Order Route).

Details for each term in the symbol syntax are:

• SYMB - the ticker symbol name issued by the exchange . Note that SYMB is an industry standard symbol name that may trade in multiple currencies and market providers.
• CURR - the currency in which the symbol trades (i.e. USD for US dollars, MXN for Mexican Pecos, etc.) and is dependent upon which country the exchange is located.
• ROUTE - the path of execution for an order. The TradeStation-IB platform defaults to "SMART", similar to "Intelligent" in the US-based version of the TradeStation platform. SMART works similarly in that it seeks out the route with the highest liquidity for a particular symbol.

If there is a specific exchange or ECN you would like to route to directly, for example, (i.e. EDGEA on the NASDAQ exchange, MEXI on the MEXI exchange, etc.). you can enter your route of choice in place of the word "SMART". If you do not know the alternative routes, you can enter a ticker symbol in the Symbol input field and the drop-down-combo box will populate with the available route options for the symbol you entered.

• ASSET - refers to the asset class of the instrument, including:
  • Stock: STK
  • Option: OPT
  • Future: FUT
  • Forex: CASH
  • Contract for Difference: CFD

Examples

The following example represents the full symbol syntax for a futures symbol expiring in June (M) or 2017 (17).

• DAXM17.EUR-DTB'FUT: The top default listing if you were to simply enter DAX in the symbol box. Entering DAX also provides listings for other months, for example, U17, Z17, etc.

The following examples represent the short symbol syntax that can be used when typing futures symbol names into the symbol box.

• DAX: type the name in the symbol box, press the Enter key, and it will be converted something similar to DAXM17.EUR-DTB'FUT. Entering DAX also provides listings for other months, for example, U17, Z17, etc.