LemonTrades
TL;DR
- Micro silver futures (SIL) are 1,000 ounces, a fifth of the standard contract: $5 a tick and $1,000 for each $1 move.
- They let you size silver trades and stops more finely.
- Silver moves on gold, real rates, the dollar and industrial demand.
- Follow silver on LemonTrades for every headline that moves it, scored and explained, and alerts on sharp moves with the likely cause.
A standard COMEX silver futures contract controls 5,000 ounces, more than many traders want. Micro silver futures control 1,000 ounces, a fifth of the size, so you can trade silver’s price with less money on the line.
The contract at a glance
- Exchange: COMEX, part of CME Group. Ticker SIL.
- Size: 1,000 troy ounces of silver.
- Tick: half a cent ($0.005) per ounce, worth $5 per contract. A $1 move in silver is $1,000.
- Hours: Sunday 6:00 PM to Friday 5:00 PM ET, with a break from 5:00 to 6:00 PM each day. See silver market hours.
- Months: listed for every month, with the most trading in the main silver months (March, May, July, September, December). Traders roll before expiry.
Check CME’s contract specifications for the current details, including delivery and last trading days.
Why trade the micro
- Smaller risk per contract: a fifth of the standard contract, so a stop can sit where it should without risking too much of your account.
- Finer sizing: scale in and out a contract at a time.
- Same market: it follows the same silver price as the full contract.
The trade-off: silver is volatile, often moving 2–3% in a day and more on big news, so even 1,000 ounces is a lot. A 3% move is worth three times the 1% figure in the table.
What moves silver
Gold, real interest rates and the dollar first; then industrial demand (solar, electronics), supply from mines, and policy, like the tariff fears that sent silver to a record and then down 7–8% in hours in January 2026. See the silver outlook and what happened with the tariffs.
Getting started
- Open an account with a registered futures broker that offers COMEX metals.
- Check the margin for SIL, and keep plenty more than that in the account.
- Plan every trade with a stop, sized from the tick value.
- Practice silver first in our free trade simulator.
Education, not financial advice. Contract specs are set by CME and can change. Futures are leveraged and you can lose more than you deposit. See our disclaimer.
