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Julian D. A. Wiseman
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Most futures contracts are listed for many different delivery months. These include oil, gold, and particularly the contracts settling against three-month interbank money. The naming conventions for these contracts are somewhat odd.
Each delivery month has a 1-letter abbreviation. These are:
F | January |
G | February |
H | March |
J | April |
K | May |
M | June |
N | July |
Q | August |
U | September |
V | October |
X | November |
Z | December |
Apparently these codes originated with Reuters; readers with evidence to this effect are asked to contact the author.
Contracts also have a colour (or even a color!). The March contract nearest delivery is called just “March”. But the following March contract is called “Red March”, the following “Green March”, and so. The official colours go as follows:
Year | Colour / Color | ||
1st | White, or omitted | ||
2nd | Red | ||
3rd | Green | ||
4th | Blue | ||
5th | Gold | ||
6th | Purple | ||
7th | Orange | ||
8th | Pink | ||
9th | Silver | ||
10th | Copper |
In PostScript, these have been rendered as:
/MonthNames [ (Dec) (Jan) (Feb) (Mar) (Apr) (May) (Jun) (Jul) (Aug) (Sep) (Oct) (Nov) (Dec) ] def /MonthCodesIMM [ (Z) (F) (G) (H) (J) (K) (M) (N) (Q) (U) (V) (X) (Z) ] def /YearColorsIMM % or YearColoursIMM, according to your taste [ {1 setgray} % White {1 0 0 setrgbcolor} % Red {0 1 0 setrgbcolor} % Green {0 0 1 setrgbcolor} % Blue {1 1 0 setrgbcolor} % Gold {0.75 0 0.75 setrgbcolor} % Purple {1 0.5 0 setrgbcolor} % Orange {1 0.75 0.75 setrgbcolor} % Pink {15 16 div setgray} % Silver {0.5 0.5 0 setrgbcolor} % Copper ] def
though this should not be regarded as definitive.
Julian D. A. Wiseman, December 2001
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