NYMEX
NY Harbor ULSD (HO) Tick Value & Contract Specs
Tick value $4.20 per tick — 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) of ULSD heating oil.
NY Harbor ULSD futures (HO), still universally called heating oil, cover 42,000 gallons of ultra-low-sulphur diesel quoted in dollars per gallon. The specs mirror RBOB exactly: a $0.0001 tick worth $4.20 per contract, with a full cent worth $420. What differs is the demand behind the barrel.
Diesel is the industrial fuel. It moves freight, farm equipment, shipping and construction, and it doubles as heating fuel across the US Northeast and much of Europe — so HO responds both to cold weather and to industrial activity, a combination no other energy contract carries. That dual demand has repeatedly made distillate the tightest part of the barrel, and HO has spent stretches leading the entire energy complex rather than following crude. The distillate crack (HO against CL) is the standard refinery-margin trade alongside gasoline. For sizing, treat HO as a crude-scale risk contract: the $4.20 tick understates it, because a three-cent day is $1,260 per contract. Use the pre-filled calculator below rather than eyeballing from the tick.
- Exchange
- NYMEX
- Contract size
- 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) of ULSD heating oil
- Tick size
- 0.0001
- Tick value
- $4.20
- Point value (multiplier)
- $42000
- Trading hours
- Sun–Fri 6:00pm–5:00pm ET, with a daily trading halt 5:00pm–6:00pm ET
- Margin
- Margin varies by broker and tends to rise ahead of winter and during distillate inventory squeezes.
How HO tick value works
Tick value is the dollar amount one futures contract gains or loses when the price moves one minimum increment (one tick).
tick value = tick size × multiplier. For HO, that is 0.0001 × $42000 = $4.20 per tick, per contract.
One contract represents 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) of ULSD heating oil. P&L for a move from entry to exit is (exit − entry) ÷ tick size × tick value × contracts.
HO contract months and ticker symbols
A futures ticker is three parts: the root, a one-letter delivery month, and the year. HOZ2026 is the December 2026 HO contract. The month letters skip I and L, which would read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
| Code | Month | Listed for HO? |
|---|---|---|
| F | January | Yes — HOF |
| G | February | Yes — HOG |
| H | March | Yes — HOH |
| J | April | Yes — HOJ |
| K | May | Yes — HOK |
| M | June | Yes — HOM |
| N | July | Yes — HON |
| Q | August | Yes — HOQ |
| U | September | Yes — HOU |
| V | October | Yes — HOV |
| X | November | Yes — HOX |
| Z | December | Yes — HOZ |
Which HO contract am I looking at?
Most charts default to the continuous front-month series rather than a dated contract — one stitched-together chart that rolls to the next month as the current one nears expiry. Every platform spells it differently, which is why the same contract appears under so many names.
| Written as | Platform | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| HO1! | TradingView | Continuous front-month contract. "2!" is the next one out, and a dated contract is written in full, e.g. HOZ2026. |
| HO00 | Barchart | Continuous front-month series. "HOZ26" style codes name a specific month and year instead. |
| HOc1 | Refinitiv / Reuters | Continuous front month; c2 is the second month out. |
| /HO | thinkorswim, tastytrade | The leading slash marks it as a future rather than a stock. A specific month is /HOZ26. |
| HO=F | Yahoo Finance | The "=F" suffix denotes the front-month futures series. |
| $HO | StockTwits, social | A cashtag, not an exchange symbol. It usually means the front month, but it is informal and ambiguous. |
A dated code such as HOZ26 always means one specific contract; the continuous forms never do. Check which you are quoting before comparing a price to someone else’s — around a roll they differ.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the tick value for HO?
- $4.20 per tick — a 0.0001 tick size × a $42000 multiplier (point value).
- What is one HO contract worth?
- One contract represents 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) of ULSD heating oil. Notional value = price × $42000; use the tick value calculator with the current price for an exact figure.
- Which exchange lists HO?
- NY Harbor ULSD (HO) trades on the NYMEX.
- What are the trading hours for HO?
- Sun–Fri 6:00pm–5:00pm ET, with a daily trading halt 5:00pm–6:00pm ET.
- How much margin do I need to trade HO?
- Margin varies by broker and tends to rise ahead of winter and during distillate inventory squeezes.
- What are the HO contract months?
- HO lists January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
- What does HOZ2026 mean?
- It is one specific HO contract: the root HO, the delivery-month code Z, and the year. Z is December, so HOZ2026 is the December 2026 contract. The codes run F G H J K M N Q U V X Z for January through December — I and L are skipped because they read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
- What is HO00, HO1! or /HO?
- All three name the same thing: the continuous front-month HO contract, written differently by different platforms. Barchart uses HO00, TradingView HO1!, thinkorswim and tastytrade /HO, Yahoo Finance HO=F, and HO on social media is usually written $HO. None of them is a separate instrument — each stitches together whichever dated contract is currently the front month.
- How is P&L calculated for HO?
- P&L = (exit price − entry price) ÷ 0.0001 tick size × $4.20 tick value × number of contracts. Use the tick value calculator to compute this directly.
More futures contract specs
- MNG — Micro Henry Hub Natural GasTick value $1.00 · NYMEX
- CL — Crude Oil (WTI)Tick value $10.00 · NYMEX
- MCL — Micro WTI Crude OilTick value $1.00 · NYMEX
- NG — Natural GasTick value $10.00 · NYMEX
See all futures contract specs or use the futures contract & tick value calculator with any symbol or custom specs.
Specs last reviewed 2026-09-15. Exchanges can amend contract specs — always confirm against the exchange or your broker before trading.