What Are Expiration Month Codes? | How Do Futures Work?

Expiration month codes are the single letters used in futures symbols to show which delivery month a contract is for. They run from F for January to Z for December, and they are combined with a product code and a year digit to make a full contract symbol such as ESZ6 (E-mini S&P 500, December 2026).

The twelve codes

Month	Code	Month	Code
January	F	July	N
February	G	August	Q
March	H	September	U
April	J	October	V
May	K	November	X
June	M	December	Z

The letters are a long-standing industry convention, not abbreviations, so they are worth memorizing. A handy pattern: the four quarterly months used by most financial futures are H, M, U, and Z.

How to read a symbol

A typical futures symbol has three parts:

Product code: set by the exchange, such as ES (E-mini S&P 500), MES (Micro E-mini S&P 500), CL (WTI crude oil), GC (gold), ZC (corn), or SXF (S&P/TSX 60 on the Montreal Exchange).
Month code: one letter from the table.
Year: usually one digit, sometimes two.

Examples:

Symbol	Meaning
ESZ6	E-mini S&P 500, December 2026
CLF7	WTI crude oil, January 2027
GCG7	Gold, February 2027
ZCH7	Corn, March 2027

Symbol formats vary by platform. Some add a space, use two-digit years (CLF27), or add an exchange prefix. Product codes can also differ between an exchange’s electronic platform and a data vendor.

Not every contract trades every month

Each product lists only certain months, set in its contract specifications:

Equity index futures such as the E-mini S&P 500 and SXF: March, June, September, December (H, M, U, Z).
Corn: March, May, July, September, December (H, K, N, U, Z).
Crude oil: every month.

Watch the year digit

A single year digit repeats every ten years, so “Z6” could mean 2016 or 2026. Platforms handle this by only listing contracts currently trading, but old data files and charts can be ambiguous. When in doubt, check the full expiration date.

Month is not the same as expiration date

The code names the contract month, not the day trading stops. WTI crude oil futures stop trading in the month before the named month; the January 2027 contract (CLF7) stops trading in December 2026. Equity index futures expire in the named month. That difference matters when you plan when to roll. See rolling futures contracts and front month.