HG Futures (Copper): Tick Value, Expiries, Order Flow

HG contract specifications

The contract unit is 25,000 pounds, quoted in dollars and cents per pound. The minimum fluctuation is $0.0005 per pound, so one tick is worth $12.50 per contract and a one-dollar move is $25,000. Open contracts are settled by delivery during the delivery month. Senzoukria's contract table holds the same tick and multiplier on the COMEX venue code.

HG expiry: first notice day and last trading day

No trades are made after the third-to-last business day of the delivery month. Delivery can take place on any business day of that month, so notices begin on first notice day, the last business day of the previous month.

Senzoukria's picker does not wait for either date. Its expiry engine lists a metal contract only until the third-to-last business day of the month before delivery, two business days ahead of first notice day, so that a deliverable contract is never proposed as the default. For HGZ6, the default moves to the next listed month on November 22, 2026 (4 calendar days before November 26, 2026), and HGZ6 stays selectable with its badge until that date. HGU6 still trades in its delivery month until September 28, 2026, but the picker stopped listing it before its first notice day, August 31, 2026. The exchange calendar also lists other months (F, G, J, M, Q, V, X); Senzoukria's catalogue uses H, K, N, U, Z to choose its default contract.

HG tick value and P&L arithmetic

• One tick = $0.0005 × 25,000 = $12.50.
• 10 ticks ($0.005 per pound) = $125 per contract.
• A stop of $0.02 per pound is 40 ticks: $500 per contract, $1,000 on 2 contracts.
• The same $0.02 on MHG is $50 per contract.

Reading HG order flow

With row resolution off, an HG footprint has one row per $0.0005 tick. The fixed steps give 2 ticks = 0.001, 4 ticks = 0.002, 8 ticks = 0.004, 16 ticks = 0.008, 32 ticks = 0.016 dollars per pound per row; grouping keeps totals exact but moves the POC from a price to a row.

Copper is quoted in dollars per pound with a tick of five hundredths of a cent, $12.50 per contract. Two ticks are a tenth of a cent and twenty ticks a full cent; since twenty is not a power of two, Senzoukria's fixed row steps give 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 or 1.6 cents per row but never exactly one cent. Prices carry four decimals on the axis and the ladder.

Using HG in Senzoukria

• Symbol picker on a Rithmic or Databento CME source: type HG; on September 25, 2026 the listed contract is HGZ6 (December 2026).
• Heatmap and DOM show that contract's book, with COMEX as the venue in the ladder header and prices printed with 4 decimals, the precision of the tick.
• Replay lists HG in the Metals group. In the automatic backtest, set Point value ($) to 25,000, the dollar value of a one-dollar move; the field defaults to 2.