Glossary · A
What is Active month (lead month, front month)?
The contract month of a futures product where most volume and liquidity are concentrated at a given time. Order-flow analysis should be done on the active month, not on a stale one.
In context
Although several months trade at once, almost all of the activity concentrates in one of them: the active month (also called the front month or lead month). When this book was written in October 2026, the active gold contract was December 2026, GCZ26. The other months trade, but much more thinly.
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