Natural Gas (NG) contract specifications: hours, tick size, options, the reports that move it and typical daily range.
Contract Specs · Natural Gas (Henry Hub)
CME Group · Verified July 2026 · Typical-day figures computed from The Traders Brief’s own 16-year database
The widow-maker, in one card. Henry Hub natural gas is the most volatile major contract on the board, runs on its own Thursday report and the weather models, and its options market is one of the deepest in commodities. Specs, hours, options, reports, and what a typical gas day is worth, from our data.
| Product / symbol | NG — Henry Hub Natural Gas futures |
| Exchange | NYMEX (CME Group), traded on CME Globex |
| Contract unit | 10,000 MMBtu (million British thermal units) |
| Price quotation | U.S. dollars per MMBtu |
| Minimum tick | $0.001 per MMBtu = $10.00 per contract |
| Ten-cent move | $0.10 per MMBtu = $1,000 per contract |
| Trading hours | Sunday–Friday, 6:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET the next day, with a daily halt from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET |
| Prime session | 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET — and Thursday 10:30 a.m., the storage number, is the week’s single loudest minute; settlement prints at 2:30 p.m. ET |
| Options on futures | Yes — monthly options (LN) on every delivery month, one of the deepest options markets in commodities. Detail below |
| Listed months | Monthly — all 12 delivery months, listed years forward |
| Last trading day | Three business days before the first calendar day of the delivery month |
| Settlement | Physical delivery at Henry Hub, Louisiana. Non-delivery traders exit or roll before expiration |
| Margin | Set by the exchange and your broker, and for this contract it moves a LOT with volatility — confirm current requirements with your broker |
Gas keeps the energy complex’s 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET prime window with settlement at 2:30, but its rhythm is its own: Thursday’s 10:30 a.m. storage print is the scheduled event of the week, and the weather-model cycles move this market at hours when nothing else in the complex is stirring. More than any other energy contract, gas can make its day’s range before the prime window ever opens.
Monthly options (LN) list on every delivery month and form one of the deepest options markets in all of commodities, a favorite of funds and producers alike, quoted tight, with enormous open interest in the winter months. The famous tail hedges of the gas market, the deep out-of-the-money winter calls, live here. European-style exercise into the future at expiration, terminating shortly before the underlying. If you trade gas seriously, the options board is not optional education.
The recurring releases that move this market, in rough order of importance.
| Report | When | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| EIA Natural Gas Storage | Thursdays 10:30 a.m. ET | The weekly injection or withdrawal against expectations — natural gas’s single scheduled event of the week |
| Weather model runs | Daily, roughly 6-hour cycles | The demand forecast IS the market for gas; model flips move the board at any hour |
| LNG export flows & terminal status | Ongoing | Export capacity ties Henry Hub to world prices; an outage at a single terminal moves the front |
| Baker Hughes rig count | Fridays 1:00 p.m. ET | The forward supply signal, gas rigs specifically |
| CFTC Commitment of Traders | Fridays 3:30 p.m. ET | Who is long and who is short, by trader class — the positioning backdrop for every move |
Over the last 12 months (258 sessions through July 23, 2026), the front NG contract’s average daily high-to-low range was 17.3 cents, worth $1,732 per contract, with a median of $1,470. The dollar figures look tame next to the products, but percentage-wise this is the wildest major contract on the board: the five-year average of $2,407 includes winters where the typical day tripled. The biggest session in the last year traveled $12,650 per contract.
The contract months that actually lead this board, with the stretch each one typically holds the front.
| Contract | Code | Typically leads |
|---|---|---|
| January | F | Nov 22 – Dec 22 |
| February | G | Dec 24 – Jan 23 |
| March | H | Jan 24 – Feb 20 |
| April | J | Feb 21 – Mar 23 |
| May | K | Mar 24 – Apr 22 |
| June | M | Apr 23 – May 22 |
| July | N | May 23 – Jun 22 |
| August | Q | Jun 24 – Jul 23 |
| September | U | Jul 24 – Aug 23 |
| October | V | Aug 25 – Sep 22 |
| November | X | Sep 24 – Oct 23 |
| December | Z | Oct 25 – Nov 21 |
Knowing what a tick is worth doesn’t tell you where this market sits today, what the 16-year record says about the session in front of you, or the levels that matter into the next open. That is what The Traders Brief does every morning, across energy, metals, and the indexes.
See today’s read →How much is one tick in natural gas futures?
$10.00 per contract; the minimum move is $0.001 per MMBtu on a 10,000-MMBtu contract. A ten-cent move is worth $1,000.
What time is the natural gas storage report?
Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. ET, the EIA weekly storage number, the single scheduled event of the gas week.
How much does natural gas move in a day?
Over the last 12 months the average daily range was 17.3 cents ($1,732 per contract), median $1,470, by our own database, with winter regimes historically running far hotter.
When do NG contracts expire?
Trading terminates three business days before the first calendar day of the delivery month; volume hands off a few sessions earlier.
Specifications reflect the exchange’s published contract terms as of July 2026 and can be amended by the exchange; confirm current terms and margin requirements with your broker before trading. Typical-day figures are computed from The Traders Brief’s historical database and describe the past, not a forecast. © 2026 The Traders Brief.