# Futures Curve: every expiry of a future on one chart

See every listed expiry of one futures market on a single curve, beside a table of its contracts, and the spread between any two of them with its history.

Trading · September 17, 2026

> Edge shows the Futures Curve to accounts that can trade futures.

![The Futures Curve on Oil while its market is closed: the contracts from Dec 26 to Jun 27 on the chart and in the table, with Days, Price, Vs prev and Ann. %, the curve of one week earlier as a dashed line, and the Jan 27 − Dec 26 pair with its spread history, its figures and Trade spread.](https://edge.etoro.com/_next/static/media/hero.34k8g0ijdr5ub.webp?dpl=69a6d367-680f-4f74-af13-4666bf21bb44)

## What it is

The Futures Curve puts every listed expiry of one futures market on a single chart, from the nearest contract to the furthest, beside a table of the contracts. Choose two of them and it shows the spread between them and how that spread has moved.

Reach for it to see how a market is priced across its expiries, to read the gap you would cross to roll a position into the next contract, or to follow a calendar spread.

## How to use it

1. Click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar and choose **Add widget**.

2. Type Futures Curve in **Search for widget**, or open **Markets**, and click the **Futures Curve** card. It joins the open layout.

3. The curve shows the market of its link group's instrument, a contract or a non-expiry instrument such as Gold, or, when the group has none, the first market with futures listed. Click the market's name at the top left to choose another; the rest of a linked group moves to that market too. Where a market lists two contract sizes, such as **Micro Gold** and **1-Ounce Gold**, choose one beside the name.

4. The chart places each contract by the time left to its expiry, with the non-expiry instrument as a diamond where there is one. The table lists the same points nearest first, with **Price**, **Vs prev**, **Ann. %** and, in a wide enough widget, **Days**. Point at a dot for its figures, or at the i at the top right for what each one means.

5. Beside **vs** at the top right, choose **1D**, **1W** or **1M** to draw the curve at that earlier close as a dashed line, moved to meet today's first contract, or **Off** to hide it. It shows whether the gaps between contracts widened or narrowed, not how far prices moved.

6. Choose two contracts with the round toggles at the start of their rows; the two nearest are chosen to begin with. The panel under the chart names the pair, later contract first, with its spread now, its history over **1D**, **1W**, **1M**, **3M** or **All**, and the period's change, range, average and percentile.

7. Click a contract's row to send it to the link group. A chart or an Order Ticket in the same group moves to that contract, and the curve stays on its market.

8. To trade the pair, see which contract it buys and which it sells (**Swap sides** reverses them), set **Contracts** and press **Trade spread**. That opens a review of both orders with three checks, and nothing is sent until you press **Place spread**, which waits for all three to pass.

## Good to know

- A closed contract shows its last value and is compared only with other closed prices, so figures such as **Vs prev** and **Ann. %** stay blank between it and a price that still trades.
- When the curve's prices are all trading, or all closed, a chip beside the market's name can call its shape **Contango**, **Backwardation**, **Flat** or **Mixed**. Like every figure here, it describes the market and does not rate it.
- A spread is two separate market orders, sent one after the other, with no margin offset between them. If the second does not go through, the first stays open and you decide what happens next.
- The Create Layout page offers a ready-made **Futures** layout: the curve, a chart, your positions and an Order Ticket, already linked.
- Set the widget's link group to **Unlinked** to keep it on a market of your choice, whatever the rest of the group shows.
- The bell beside the pair's name sets alerts on the spread between its two contracts.

Screens are from a Demo account. The instruments and prices in them are illustrative.

## Try it in Edge

[Try it in Edge](https://edge.etoro.com/?try=widget-futures-curve): Edge opens and Tori shows you where it is.

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