CBOT
Soybean Oil (ZL) Tick Value & Contract Specs
Tick value $6.00 per tick — 60,000 pounds of crude soybean oil.
Soybean Oil futures (ZL) cover 60,000 pounds, quoted in cents per pound — a different unit from the bushel-based grains, which changes the arithmetic. The tick is one hundredth of a cent, worth $6.00 per contract, and a full cent is $600. With oil near 50 cents, one contract is roughly $30,000 of notional.
ZL is the energy contract hiding in the grain complex. A large and growing share of US soybean oil goes into biodiesel and renewable diesel, which ties the price to crude oil, to the Renewable Fuel Standard, and to the tax-credit decisions that determine whether renewable-diesel plants run at all. A single EPA announcement can move ZL several cents while soybeans barely react. The contract is also one leg of the board crush — beans in, meal and oil out — so it trades against ZS and ZM as a processing margin rather than purely on its own supply. Sizing here needs care on two fronts: the cents quoting, and the 60,000-pound contract size that makes a one-cent move six times more valuable than a cent on corn. The calculator below is pre-filled with ZL's specs.
- Exchange
- CBOT
- Contract size
- 60,000 pounds of crude soybean oil
- Tick size
- 0.01
- Tick value
- $6.00
- Point value (multiplier)
- $600
- Trading hours
- Sun–Fri 7:00pm–7:45am CT, then Mon–Fri 8:30am–1:20pm CT
- Margin
- Margin varies by broker and moves with biofuel policy announcements as much as with crop fundamentals.
How ZL 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 ZL, that is 0.01 × $600 = $6.00 per tick, per contract.
One contract represents 60,000 pounds of crude soybean oil. P&L for a move from entry to exit is (exit − entry) ÷ tick size × tick value × contracts.
ZL contract months and ticker symbols
A futures ticker is three parts: the root, a one-letter delivery month, and the year. ZLZ2026 is the December 2026 ZL contract. The month letters skip I and L, which would read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
| Code | Month | Listed for ZL? |
|---|---|---|
| F | January | Yes — ZLF |
| G | February | No |
| H | March | Yes — ZLH |
| J | April | No |
| K | May | Yes — ZLK |
| M | June | No |
| N | July | Yes — ZLN |
| Q | August | Yes — ZLQ |
| U | September | Yes — ZLU |
| V | October | Yes — ZLV |
| X | November | No |
| Z | December | Yes — ZLZ |
Which ZL 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ZL1! | TradingView | Continuous front-month contract. "2!" is the next one out, and a dated contract is written in full, e.g. ZLZ2026. |
| ZL00 | Barchart | Continuous front-month series. "ZLZ26" style codes name a specific month and year instead. |
| ZLc1 | Refinitiv / Reuters | Continuous front month; c2 is the second month out. |
| /ZL | thinkorswim, tastytrade | The leading slash marks it as a future rather than a stock. A specific month is /ZLZ26. |
| ZL=F | Yahoo Finance | The "=F" suffix denotes the front-month futures series. |
| $ZL | 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 ZLZ26 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 ZL?
- $6.00 per tick — a 0.01 tick size × a $600 multiplier (point value).
- What is one ZL contract worth?
- One contract represents 60,000 pounds of crude soybean oil. Notional value = price (in cents) × $600; use the tick value calculator with the current price for an exact figure.
- Which exchange lists ZL?
- Soybean Oil (ZL) trades on the CBOT.
- What are the trading hours for ZL?
- Sun–Fri 7:00pm–7:45am CT, then Mon–Fri 8:30am–1:20pm CT.
- How much margin do I need to trade ZL?
- Margin varies by broker and moves with biofuel policy announcements as much as with crop fundamentals.
- What are the ZL contract months?
- ZL lists January, March, May, July, August, September, October and December.
- What does ZLZ2026 mean?
- It is one specific ZL contract: the root ZL, the delivery-month code Z, and the year. Z is December, so ZLZ2026 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 ZL00, ZL1! or /ZL?
- All three name the same thing: the continuous front-month ZL contract, written differently by different platforms. Barchart uses ZL00, TradingView ZL1!, thinkorswim and tastytrade /ZL, Yahoo Finance ZL=F, and ZL on social media is usually written $ZL. None of them is a separate instrument — each stitches together whichever dated contract is currently the front month.
- How is P&L calculated for ZL?
- P&L = (exit price − entry price) ÷ 0.01 tick size × $6.00 tick value × number of contracts. Use the tick value calculator to compute this directly.
More futures contract specs
- ZM — Soybean MealTick value $10.00 · CBOT
- LE — Live CattleTick value $10.00 · CME
- HE — Lean HogsTick value $10.00 · CME
- ZC — CornTick value $12.50 · 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.