Front Month

Futures contracts exist for multiple delivery dates simultaneously — a market might list contracts expiring next month, two months out, six months out, and beyond. The front-month contract is simply the one expiring soonest. Because most traders focus there, it attracts the highest trading volume and the tightest gap between buying and selling prices, making it the de-facto benchmark. When a headline quotes the price of crude oil or natural gas, it almost always means the front-month futures contract, not the spot price.

Front-month status is temporary. As a contract approaches its expiration date, traders who want to maintain a position "roll" into the next contract — closing the expiring one and opening the following month's. This roll can cause a visible price jump in chart data even when the underlying commodity's value has barely changed, which is an important detail when reading price charts. The spot vs. futures prices guide explains how these transitions work in practice.

The relationship between front-month prices and later-dated contracts reveals a lot about market expectations. When front-month prices sit below longer-dated contracts, the market is in contango — a structure that historically signals ample near-term supply. The reverse, where front-month prices are higher, is called backwardation. Both concepts are covered in the contango and backwardation guide, and traders typically watch the front-month closely as the most immediate signal of where sentiment stands.