CBOT
Chicago SRW Wheat (ZW) Tick Value & Contract Specs
Tick value $12.50 per tick — 5,000 bushels of Chicago soft red winter wheat.
Chicago wheat futures (ZW) cover 5,000 bushels of soft red winter wheat, quoted in cents per bushel with a quarter-cent tick worth $12.50 — the same specifications as corn and soybeans. What differs is the risk profile, because wheat is the most geopolitically exposed grain on the board.
Wheat is grown and consumed everywhere, and the largest exporters include Russia and Ukraine. Supply shocks in the Black Sea have repeatedly produced limit moves in Chicago wheat within hours of a headline, and those moves have nothing to do with US fundamentals. A second wrinkle is that ZW is one of three US wheat contracts: Chicago soft red winter, Kansas City hard red winter (KE), and Minneapolis hard red spring (MWE). They track different crops with different protein content and different buyers, and the spreads between them are traded in their own right — so a price quoted for wheat without a venue attached is ambiguous. ZW is the most liquid and the global benchmark. Note the cents quoting before sizing; the pre-filled calculator below handles the conversion.
- Exchange
- CBOT
- Contract size
- 5,000 bushels of Chicago soft red winter wheat
- 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 has spiked hard around Black Sea supply disruptions.
How ZW 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 ZW, that is 0.25 × $50 = $12.50 per tick, per contract.
One contract represents 5,000 bushels of Chicago soft red winter wheat. P&L for a move from entry to exit is (exit − entry) ÷ tick size × tick value × contracts.
ZW contract months and ticker symbols
A futures ticker is three parts: the root, a one-letter delivery month, and the year. ZWZ2026 is the December 2026 ZW contract. The month letters skip I and L, which would read as 1 and 7 on a ticker.
| Code | Month | Listed for ZW? |
|---|---|---|
| F | January | No |
| G | February | No |
| H | March | Yes — ZWH |
| J | April | No |
| K | May | Yes — ZWK |
| M | June | No |
| N | July | Yes — ZWN |
| Q | August | No |
| U | September | Yes — ZWU |
| V | October | No |
| X | November | No |
| Z | December | Yes — ZWZ |
Which ZW 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ZW1! | TradingView | Continuous front-month contract. "2!" is the next one out, and a dated contract is written in full, e.g. ZWZ2026. |
| ZW00 | Barchart | Continuous front-month series. "ZWZ26" style codes name a specific month and year instead. |
| ZWc1 | Refinitiv / Reuters | Continuous front month; c2 is the second month out. |
| /ZW | thinkorswim, tastytrade | The leading slash marks it as a future rather than a stock. A specific month is /ZWZ26. |
| ZW=F | Yahoo Finance | The "=F" suffix denotes the front-month futures series. |
| $ZW | 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 ZWZ26 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 ZW?
- $12.50 per tick — a 0.25 tick size × a $50 multiplier (point value).
- What is one ZW contract worth?
- One contract represents 5,000 bushels of Chicago soft red winter wheat. Notional value = price (in cents) × $50; use the tick value calculator with the current price for an exact figure.
- Which exchange lists ZW?
- Chicago SRW Wheat (ZW) trades on the CBOT.
- What are the trading hours for ZW?
- Sun–Fri 7:00pm–7:45am CT, then Mon–Fri 8:30am–1:20pm CT.
- How much margin do I need to trade ZW?
- Margin varies by broker and has spiked hard around Black Sea supply disruptions.
- What are the ZW contract months?
- ZW lists March, May, July, September and December.
- What does ZWZ2026 mean?
- It is one specific ZW contract: the root ZW, the delivery-month code Z, and the year. Z is December, so ZWZ2026 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 ZW00, ZW1! or /ZW?
- All three name the same thing: the continuous front-month ZW contract, written differently by different platforms. Barchart uses ZW00, TradingView ZW1!, thinkorswim and tastytrade /ZW, Yahoo Finance ZW=F, and ZW on social media is usually written $ZW. None of them is a separate instrument — each stitches together whichever dated contract is currently the front month.
- How is P&L calculated for ZW?
- 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
- ZL — Soybean OilTick value $6.00 · CBOT
- ZM — Soybean MealTick value $10.00 · CBOT
- LE — Live CattleTick value $10.00 · CME
- HE — Lean HogsTick value $10.00 · CME
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.