Futures calendar spreads with TS

September 21st, 2021, 08:36 AM

I opened an account with TS yesterday for the purpose of doing futures calendar spreads. I was told yesterday that to do that, I would need to use FuturesPlus. Today, when I asked how to enter futures calendar spread orders not involving options, I was told that it's impossible to do that with TS regardless of which of their platforms I use, I would need to leg into the spreads.

Has anyone been able to somehow do futures calendar spreads without legging into them?

I'm currently using ThinkOrSwim but was hoping to get a broker that charged less commissions.

EDIT: I figured out myself how to do futures calendar spreads with FuturesPlus so this thread may be ignored or the moderator may delete it.

September 22nd, 2021, 11:38 AM

In case others search and find this question/thread looking for an answer.

As @USS Liberty said, in a normal Tradestation account the only way to trade Futures Calendar spreads is to leg them, one instrument at a time! Even if you are just trying to roll a position and not actively trade spread, you have to leg the roll.

The solution is to have a Futures+ account, which basically uses a white-labelled reduced functionality version of Trading Technologies. Problem with this route is you can NOT automate any trading through the Tradestation platform!

Why this involves two separate accounts and can't be combined into one escapes me!

Futures calendar spreads with TS

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Futures calendar spreads with TS