Gold (GC) contract specifications: hours, tick size, options, the reports that move it and typical daily range.
Contract Specs · Gold (COMEX)
CME Group · Verified July 2026 · Typical-day figures computed from The Traders Brief’s own 16-year database
The benchmark metal, in one card. COMEX gold runs on real yields and the dollar, rotates through five active delivery months instead of twelve, and this year its typical day is worth more than double its five-year norm. Specs, the hours that matter, a deep options market, the reports that move it, and the typical-day math from our own data.
| Product / symbol | GC — COMEX Gold futures |
| Exchange | COMEX (CME Group), traded on CME Globex |
| Contract unit | 100 troy ounces |
| Price quotation | U.S. dollars and cents per troy ounce |
| Minimum tick | $0.10 per ounce = $10.00 per contract |
| $10 move | $10 per ounce = $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 | 8:20 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET — the COMEX prime window; the 8:30 a.m. U.S. data drops land inside it and settlement prints at 1:30 p.m. ET |
| Options on futures | Yes — monthly options (OG) plus weeklies; deep, tight, institutional. Detail below |
| Active months | Feb (G), Apr (J), Jun (M), Aug (Q), Dec (Z) — gold’s board rotates through five lead contracts, and the December contract leads for nearly three months |
| Last trading day | Third-to-last business day of the delivery month |
| Settlement | Physical delivery of exchange-approved bars via COMEX depositories. Non-delivery traders roll well before |
| Margin | Set by the exchange and your broker, changes with volatility — confirm current requirements with your broker |
Gold’s prime window opens earlier than energy’s: 8:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET, built around the 8:30 a.m. data releases that drive the metal, with settlement at 1:30 p.m. London’s morning adds real liquidity before New York wakes, and the overnight Asian session matters more for gold than for any U.S. energy contract. But the prints that decide the day, CPI, payrolls, Fed statements, all land inside or beside the COMEX window.
Gold options (OG monthlies plus an active weekly complex) form one of the deepest metals options markets in the world: tight quotes, huge open interest, and a full institutional ecosystem of hedgers and macro funds. American-style exercise into the future. For a market that gaps on data prints, the options board is where much of the professional positioning actually lives, and the put-call skew is itself a sentiment read the desks watch.
The recurring releases that move this market, in rough order of importance.
| Report | When | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| FOMC decisions & minutes | 8 scheduled meetings/yr, 2:00 p.m. ET | Rate policy sets real yields, and real yields are the metal’s gravity |
| CPI | Monthly, 8:30 a.m. ET | The inflation print the whole precious-metals thesis trades against |
| Nonfarm payrolls | First Fridays, 8:30 a.m. ET | Growth and rate expectations in one number; big surprises reprice the dollar and the metal together |
| U.S. dollar & real yields | Continuous | Not a report but the tide: the metal’s largest single driver day to day |
| 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 gold contract’s average daily high-to-low range was $108.60 per ounce, worth $10,860 per contract, with a median of $8,655. Read that against the five-year average of $4,696 and the message is blunt: gold is currently running well over double its normal regime, and the largest session in the year traveled $77,980 on a single contract. Whatever sizing worked in 2023 does not apply to this tape.
The contract months that actually lead this board, with the stretch each one typically holds the front.
| Contract | Code | Typically leads |
|---|---|---|
| February | G | leads roughly Dec – Jan |
| April | J | leads roughly Feb – Mar |
| June | M | leads roughly Apr – May |
| August | Q | leads roughly Jun – Jul |
| December | Z | leads roughly Aug – Nov (the long seat) |
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 gold futures?
$10.00 per contract; the minimum move is $0.10 per ounce on a 100-ounce contract. A $10 move is worth $1,000.
Which gold contract months are active?
Five: February, April, June, August, and December (G, J, M, Q, Z). The December contract leads the board from roughly August through November, nearly three months.
How much does gold move in a day?
Over the last 12 months the average daily range was $108.60 per ounce ($10,860 per contract), median $8,655, against a five-year norm of $4,696, by our own database. The metal is running more than double its normal regime.
When do GC contracts expire?
Trading terminates on the third-to-last business day of the delivery month; volume rolls to the next active month weeks 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.