SIL Contract Specifications
- Symbol: SIL, traded on COMEX.
- Contract size: 1,000 troy ounces of silver.
- Quote: US dollars per troy ounce.
- Minimum tick: $0.005 per ounce, worth $5.00 per contract.
- Hours: nearly 24 hours on weekdays, alongside the standard silver session.
- Contract months: listed months follow the standard silver cycle, with the nearby active months carrying most of the volume.
SIL Versus SI
Standard silver (SI) is 5,000 ounces with a $25 tick. Micro silver (SIL) is 1,000 ounces with a $5 tick. A $1 move in silver is $5,000 on SI and $1,000 on SIL. Margin runs roughly one-fifth of the standard requirement — a meaningful difference, because silver margins are substantial and rise quickly when the market heats up.
The micro also lets you size in 1,000-ounce steps, useful for scaling into or out of positions in a market as jumpy as silver. Just keep count: five SIL contracts carry the same exposure as one SI, so micro size only reduces risk if you actually keep the total small.
Trading Micro Silver Well
Silver's volatility does not shrink with the contract — only the dollar value of each move does. Plan stops from silver's real daily range, keep a funding cushion above the minimum margin, and remember that positions in a given month expire, so longer holds mean rolling to the next active month.
Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. For current SIL margins and specs, check the contract specifications page or ask a broker directly.
Margin on SIL follows the same rules as the standard contract: an initial requirement to open, a maintenance level to hold, and increases when volatility climbs. Because silver margins change more often than most, check the current figure before every new position rather than assuming last month's number still holds. Daily settlement applies too — each day's gain or loss moves in or out of your account in cash. Traders coming from stocks sometimes find that daily mark-to-market the strangest part of futures; in a market as fast as silver, it is also the part that keeps risk visible instead of hidden.
Used properly, SIL is how a smaller account trades silver honestly — same market, same hours, same daily settlement, at a size that leaves room for error. That room is what keeps a learning trader in the game long enough to become an experienced one.