NYMEX
Platinum (PL) Tick Value & Contract Specs
Tick value $5.00 per tick — 50 troy ounces of platinum.
Platinum futures (PL) cover 50 troy ounces, half the size of a gold contract, quoted in dollars per ounce. The tick is $0.10 per ounce and therefore $5.00 per contract, with a full dollar move worth $50. On paper that makes PL look like a gentler version of GC; in practice the opposite is often true, because platinum's order book is a fraction of gold's depth and the same headline moves it further.
Platinum is best understood as an industrial metal that happens to be precious. Roughly three-quarters of demand is autocatalysts and industry, and supply is concentrated in South Africa to a degree no other major metal matches — so load-shedding at South African mines can reprice the contract overnight. It also trades against palladium in the substitution spread, which is why the two move together more often than either moves with gold. The thin liquidity is the risk that matters: stops slip further here than in GC. Use the pre-filled calculator below to size off the dollar move, and assume more slippage than the $5.00 tick implies.
- Exchange
- NYMEX
- Contract size
- 50 troy ounces of platinum
- Tick size
- 0.1
- Tick value
- $5.00
- Point value (multiplier)
- $50
- 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 can be high relative to notional, because platinum's thinner liquidity produces wider gaps.
How PL 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 PL, that is 0.1 × $50 = $5.00 per tick, per contract.
One contract represents 50 troy ounces of platinum. P&L for a move from entry to exit is (exit − entry) ÷ tick size × tick value × contracts.
PL contract months and ticker symbols
A futures ticker is three parts: the root, a one-letter delivery month, and the year. PLZ2026 is the December 2026 PL contract. The month letters skip I and L, which would read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
| Code | Month | Listed for PL? |
|---|---|---|
| F | January | Yes — PLF |
| G | February | No |
| H | March | No |
| J | April | Yes — PLJ |
| K | May | No |
| M | June | No |
| N | July | Yes — PLN |
| Q | August | No |
| U | September | No |
| V | October | Yes — PLV |
| X | November | No |
| Z | December | No |
Which PL 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 |
|---|---|---|
| PL1! | TradingView | Continuous front-month contract. "2!" is the next one out, and a dated contract is written in full, e.g. PLZ2026. |
| PL00 | Barchart | Continuous front-month series. "PLZ26" style codes name a specific month and year instead. |
| PLc1 | Refinitiv / Reuters | Continuous front month; c2 is the second month out. |
| /PL | thinkorswim, tastytrade | The leading slash marks it as a future rather than a stock. A specific month is /PLZ26. |
| PL=F | Yahoo Finance | The "=F" suffix denotes the front-month futures series. |
| $PL | 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 PLZ26 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 PL?
- $5.00 per tick — a 0.1 tick size × a $50 multiplier (point value).
- What is one PL contract worth?
- One contract represents 50 troy ounces of platinum. Notional value = price × $50; use the tick value calculator with the current price for an exact figure.
- Which exchange lists PL?
- Platinum (PL) trades on the NYMEX.
- What are the trading hours for PL?
- 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 PL?
- Margin varies by broker and can be high relative to notional, because platinum's thinner liquidity produces wider gaps.
- What are the PL contract months?
- PL lists January, April, July and October.
- What does PLZ2026 mean?
- It is one specific PL contract: the root PL, the delivery-month code Z, and the year. Z is December, so PLZ2026 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 PL00, PL1! or /PL?
- All three name the same thing: the continuous front-month PL contract, written differently by different platforms. Barchart uses PL00, TradingView PL1!, thinkorswim and tastytrade /PL, Yahoo Finance PL=F, and PL on social media is usually written $PL. None of them is a separate instrument — each stitches together whichever dated contract is currently the front month.
- How is P&L calculated for PL?
- P&L = (exit price − entry price) ÷ 0.1 tick size × $5.00 tick value × number of contracts. Use the tick value calculator to compute this directly.
More futures contract specs
- SIL — Micro SilverTick value $5.00 · COMEX
- GC — GoldTick value $10.00 · COMEX
- MGC — Micro GoldTick value $1.00 · COMEX
- SI — SilverTick value $25.00 · COMEX
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.