Analysing a continuous contract to trade a futures

Sentient Trader needs the data from a continuous contract because it needs to look back many years in order for it to perform an analysis. But the actual trading has to happen on the trading platform with the current contract. There are two approaches to do this, depending on whether you are using the continuous contract or cash/spot data for analysis:

1. Usually the continuous contract has the current contract as it's most recent price. And so you don't have to do anything - simply decide on entry levels in ST using the continuous contract data and then enter at those levels into the current contract.
2. If you are using the cash/spot price as data for analysis, or if the continuous contract is calculated in an unusual way, then the current price won't match the current future contract price. In this case you could:
   • Calculate what is called the "basis" between the cash price and the future contract (you can do this on the trading platform). Adjust entry and exit levels by the basis; or
   • In ST determine what level is being used for the entry or exit. If it is an FLD, then it is the median (or high/low) price of a bar in the past - it is easy to find that bar by simply displaying the chart using "line on median" and find the matching bar.  Then on trading platform find the same bar on the current futures contract, and your entry/exit would be the median price (or sometimes high/low price) of that bar. If it is a VTL then that is simply a trendline, drawn between two troughs or peaks. Draw the same trendline on the trading platform chart.

In Sentient Trader it is possible to send orders to MT4 from a different chart (such as a continuous or cash chart). In the trading settings of the chart simply enter the trading symbol of the current futures contract in the trading symbol box and in the advanced settings section (click the "Advanced  >>" button at the bottom of trade settings window - the setting is at the bottom of the window under "Futures Contracts") you can specify an amount to use as basis. However this is not a recommended approach because the basis changes constantly, and it is a much better approach to take the trading opportunity information from ST and execute the trades manually to avoid getting into trades at the wrong level because of fluctuations in the basis.