Silver (SI) contract specifications: hours, tick size, options, the reports that move it and typical daily range.
Contract Specs · Silver (COMEX)
CME Group · Verified July 2026 · Typical-day figures computed from The Traders Brief’s own 16-year database
Gold’s louder cousin, in one card. Silver carries a $25 tick, five active delivery months, and, right now, the most explosive typical day of any contract we track: nearly $19,000 per contract on the average day of the last twelve months. Specs, hours, options, reports, and the sizing math you need before touching it.
| Product / symbol | SI — COMEX Silver futures |
| Exchange | COMEX (CME Group), traded on CME Globex |
| Contract unit | 5,000 troy ounces |
| Price quotation | U.S. dollars and cents per troy ounce |
| Minimum tick | $0.005 per ounce = $25.00 per contract |
| $1 move | $1.00 per ounce = $5,000 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. – 1:25 p.m. ET — the COMEX prime window; settlement prints at 1:25 p.m. ET |
| Options on futures | Yes — monthly options (SO) plus weeklies; liquid in the front months. Detail below |
| Active months | Mar (H), May (K), Jul (N), Sep (U), Dec (Z) — a different five than gold’s |
| Last trading day | Third-to-last business day of the delivery month |
| Settlement | Physical delivery of exchange-approved bars via COMEX depositories |
| Margin | Set by the exchange and your broker, and silver’s margins jump hard when volatility spikes — confirm with your broker |
Silver shares gold’s clock: the 8:20 a.m. to 1:25 p.m. ET COMEX window, with the 8:30 data prints inside it and settlement at 1:25. What silver adds is amplitude. The same macro impulse that moves gold one unit historically moves silver closer to two, and in thin overnight hours that multiplier gets worse, not better. The prime window is not just where the liquidity is; for silver it is where the slippage isn’t.
Silver options (SO monthlies plus weeklies) are genuinely liquid in the front months, quoted wider than gold’s but entirely workable, with the same American-style exercise into the future. The market’s character leans speculative: call skew in silver is a crowd-enthusiasm gauge the desks read, and when the retail wave arrives, it arrives through silver calls first.
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 silver contract’s average daily high-to-low range was $3.77 per ounce, worth $18,853 per contract, with a median of $14,025, against a five-year average of just $6,586. The largest single session traveled $222,250 per contract during this spring’s run. Those are not typos. One silver contract currently carries the daily dollar swing of roughly five ES contracts, and sizing that ignores this regime is how accounts end.
The contract months that actually lead this board, with the stretch each one typically holds the front.
| Contract | Code | Typically leads |
|---|---|---|
| March | H | leads roughly Dec – Feb (the long seat) |
| May | K | leads roughly Mar – Apr |
| July | N | leads roughly May – Jun |
| September | U | leads roughly Jul – Aug |
| December | Z | leads roughly Sep – Nov (the other 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 silver futures?
$25.00 per contract; the minimum move is half a cent per ounce on a 5,000-ounce contract. A $1.00 move is worth $5,000.
Which silver contract months are active?
Five: March, May, July, September, and December (H, K, N, U, Z), a different rotation than gold’s.
How much does silver move in a day?
Over the last 12 months the average daily range was $3.77 per ounce, $18,853 per contract, median $14,025, nearly triple its five-year norm, by our own database.
When do SI contracts expire?
Trading terminates on the third-to-last business day of the delivery month; volume rolls 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.