Futures Symbols in QCharts
by Bill Bledsoe & Larry Marchman

Did you know that you can track a fair number of futures symbols in QCharts? Most likely, the data will be delayed 30 minutes, but you can still get a good picture of what's going on. If you want real-time data for these, you'd need to subscribe to the exchanges that provide this data (which is pricey). But you can get the 30 minute delayed data. The "delayed data for free" policy will change as of the end of Sept 2006. See the note at the bottom of this page for details.

Some Futures Exchange websites:

The New York Mercantile Exchange: http://www.nymex.com/index.aspx 
The Chicago Board of Trade: http://www.cbot.com/ 
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange "The Merc": http://www.cme.com/ 
The Kansas City Board of Trade: http://www.kcbt.com/ 
The Intercontinental Exchange: https://www.theice.com/homepage.jhtml 
The New York Board of Trade: http://www.nybot.com/ 
 

Remember - you need that space before the last two characters in the ticker symbol.

What are some common commodity symbols to look at in QCharts?

IMPORTANT NOTE: The nomeclature in this section assumes that the month being referenced IS the actual front month or a future month contract. See the note just past this section on how to bring up tickers for expired futures contracts. Some of the tickers in this first section are already expired, but for demonstration, we're pretending that they are all front month, which some are not.

Light, Sweet Crude Oil

Trades on the: NYMEX (home page: http://www.nymex.com/lsco_fut_cso.aspx )

Ticker: CL  Add the month and the year code

For example, March 2009 Light, Sweet Crude would be: NYMEX:CL H0  ("H" is the code for March, "0" (zero) is the year)

 
Gold
Trades on the: COMEX  (home page: http://www.nymex.com/gol_fut_cso.aspx )
Ticker: GC  Add the month and the year code
For example, Oct 06 Gold would be: COMEX:GC V6  ("V" is the code for Oct, "6" is the year)

Silver
Trades on the: COMEX (home page: http://www.nymex.com/sil_fut_cso.aspx  )
Ticker: SI  Add the month and the year code
For example, Dec 09 Silver would be: COMEX:SI Z9  ("Z" is the code for Dec, "9" is the year)

Heating Oil
Trades on the: NYMEX (home page: http://www.nymex.com/ho_fut_cso.aspx )
Ticker: HO (that's the letter O, not the number zero)  Add the month and the year code
For example, March 2009 Heating Oil would be: NYMEX:HO H0  ("H" is the code for March, "the number 0" is the year for 2010)

Copper
Trades on the: COMEX (home page: http://www.nymex.com/cop_fut_cso.aspx  )
Ticker: HG  Add the month and the year code
For example, Oct 06 Copper would be: COMEX:HG V6  ("V" is the code for Oct, "6" is the year)

Natural Gas
Trades on the: NYMEX (home page: http://www.nymex.com/ng_fut_cso.aspx )
Ticker: NG  Add the month and the year code
For example, Oct 06 Natural Gas would be: NYMEX:NG V6  ("V" is the code for Oct, "6" is the year)

Expired Contracts

Now, if you want to do research on expired contracts, the nomenclature is a little different. You have to use the entire year. So, the Natural Gas ticker directly above would become NG V2006, instead of the NG V6 you'd use if you were doing this prior to Oct 2006.

To look at Dec 2008 Heating Oil, you'd enter HO Z2008 - see? you have to enter the entire year, whereas if you were entering this heating oil ticker before December 2008, you'd just enter HO Z8. But since the December 2008 Heating Oil contract has expired, you'll enter the entire year - HO Z2008.

Remember, when you look at expired contracts you have to scroll your charts backwards in time to that time that you're looking at!

Additional popular futures for commodity products are listed at the NYMEX website: www.nymex.com 

The note that was sent out regarding continuing to get delayed futures data through QCharts: