CBOT
Corn (ZC) Tick Value & Contract Specs
Tick value $12.50 per tick — 5,000 bushels of No. 2 yellow corn.
Corn futures (ZC) cover 5,000 bushels and are quoted in cents per bushel, not dollars — a distinction that trips up more newcomers than any other contract on this site. A quote of 440'4 means 440 and 4/8 cents, or $4.4025 per bushel. The minimum tick is a quarter of a cent, worth $12.50 per contract, and a full one-cent move is $50.
That cents convention is where position sizing goes wrong. Multiplying the screen price of 440.25 by 5,000 bushels gives $2.2 million, when the contract is actually worth about $22,012 — a hundredfold error, and one that a calculator expecting dollars will make silently. The calculator below is pre-filled with corn's specs and labelled in cents, so the conversion is handled for you. As for the market itself: corn is the largest US crop by acreage, and its year splits into two regimes. From planting through pollination the market trades weather, and a hot dry stretch over Iowa in July can add fifty cents in a week. Outside that window it trades demand — ethanol margins, export sales to China and Mexico, and the quarterly stocks reports that regularly gap the board.
- Exchange
- CBOT
- Contract size
- 5,000 bushels of No. 2 yellow corn
- Tick size
- 0.25
- Tick value
- $12.50
- Point value (multiplier)
- $50
- Trading hours
- Sun–Fri 7:00pm–7:45am CT, then Mon–Fri 8:30am–1:20pm CT
- Margin
- Margin varies by broker and rises sharply around the June acreage report and mid-summer weather markets.
How ZC 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 ZC, that is 0.25 × $50 = $12.50 per tick, per contract.
One contract represents 5,000 bushels of No. 2 yellow corn. P&L for a move from entry to exit is (exit − entry) ÷ tick size × tick value × contracts.
ZC contract months and ticker symbols
A futures ticker is three parts: the root, a one-letter delivery month, and the year. ZCZ2026 is the December 2026 ZC contract. The month letters skip I and L, which would read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
| Code | Month | Listed for ZC? |
|---|---|---|
| F | January | No |
| G | February | No |
| H | March | Yes — ZCH |
| J | April | No |
| K | May | Yes — ZCK |
| M | June | No |
| N | July | Yes — ZCN |
| Q | August | No |
| U | September | Yes — ZCU |
| V | October | No |
| X | November | No |
| Z | December | Yes — ZCZ |
Which ZC 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ZC1! | TradingView | Continuous front-month contract. "2!" is the next one out, and a dated contract is written in full, e.g. ZCZ2026. |
| ZC00 | Barchart | Continuous front-month series. "ZCZ26" style codes name a specific month and year instead. |
| ZCc1 | Refinitiv / Reuters | Continuous front month; c2 is the second month out. |
| /ZC | thinkorswim, tastytrade | The leading slash marks it as a future rather than a stock. A specific month is /ZCZ26. |
| ZC=F | Yahoo Finance | The "=F" suffix denotes the front-month futures series. |
| $ZC | 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 ZCZ26 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 ZC?
- $12.50 per tick — a 0.25 tick size × a $50 multiplier (point value).
- What is one ZC contract worth?
- One contract represents 5,000 bushels of No. 2 yellow corn. Notional value = price (in cents) × $50; use the tick value calculator with the current price for an exact figure.
- Which exchange lists ZC?
- Corn (ZC) trades on the CBOT.
- What are the trading hours for ZC?
- Sun–Fri 7:00pm–7:45am CT, then Mon–Fri 8:30am–1:20pm CT.
- How much margin do I need to trade ZC?
- Margin varies by broker and rises sharply around the June acreage report and mid-summer weather markets.
- What are the ZC contract months?
- ZC lists March, May, July, September and December.
- What does ZCZ2026 mean?
- It is one specific ZC contract: the root ZC, the delivery-month code Z, and the year. Z is December, so ZCZ2026 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 ZC00, ZC1! or /ZC?
- All three name the same thing: the continuous front-month ZC contract, written differently by different platforms. Barchart uses ZC00, TradingView ZC1!, thinkorswim and tastytrade /ZC, Yahoo Finance ZC=F, and ZC on social media is usually written $ZC. None of them is a separate instrument — each stitches together whichever dated contract is currently the front month.
- How is P&L calculated for ZC?
- P&L = (exit price − entry price) ÷ 0.25 tick size × $12.50 tick value × number of contracts. Use the tick value calculator to compute this directly.
More futures contract specs
- ZS — SoybeansTick value $12.50 · CBOT
- ZW — Chicago SRW WheatTick value $12.50 · CBOT
- ZL — Soybean OilTick value $6.00 · CBOT
- ZM — Soybean MealTick value $10.00 · CBOT
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.