Micro E-mini specs side by side: MES, MNQ, MYM and M2K

Tick size, tick value, point value, hours and settlement for the four equity-index micro E-mini futures, plus how to turn any price move into dollars.

The four equity-index micro E-mini futures look alike on a quote screen, but they do not move money alike. A 10-point move in one is worth ten times a 10-point move in another, and one of them ticks in tenths of a point. Before you size a single trade, you should be able to turn any price move in any of the four into dollars in your head. This guide lays the specs side by side, gives you the formula, and shows where traders get it wrong.

Why micros exist

CME Group launched the micro E-mini contracts on May 6, 2019, each one-tenth the size of the matching E-mini. The reason was simple: as the indexes rose, the full-size contracts became large. CME noted that the E-mini S&P 500 had grown from a notional value of roughly $47,000 at its launch to around $145,000 by 2019. One E-mini contract was too big a position for many small accounts to hold with a sensible stop.

A micro tracks the same index, trades on the same CME Globex platform during the same hours and settles to the same final price as its E-mini sibling. Only the multiplier is smaller. That means you can practise real position sizing in single-contract steps that are a tenth the size, and scale up later by adding micros rather than jumping straight to a contract ten times larger.

Smaller does not mean safer. A micro is still a leveraged futures contract: you post a margin deposit that is a small fraction of the contract's notional value, and losses beyond that deposit are yours.

The four contracts side by side

Equity-index micro E-mini futures: core specifications (verify on cmegroup.com before trading)

Spec	MES	MNQ	MYM	M2K
Tracks	S&P 500 Index	Nasdaq-100 Index	Dow Jones Industrial Average	Russell 2000 Index
Multiplier (point value)	$5 x index	$2 x index	$0.50 x index	$5 x index
Minimum tick	0.25 point	0.25 point	1.00 point	0.10 point
Tick value	$1.25	$0.50	$0.50	$0.50
Ticks per point	4	4	1	10
E-mini sibling (point value)	ES ($50)	NQ ($20)	YM ($5)	RTY ($50)
Contract months	Quarterly: March, June, September, December (month codes H, M, U, Z)
Last trading day	Third Friday of the contract month; trading in the expiring contract ends at 9:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. CT)
Settlement	Cash (financially) settled to the Special Opening Quotation of the index on the third Friday; no shares change hands
Hours (CME Globex)	Sunday to Friday, 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, with a daily maintenance break from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET

A few notes on the table. The calendar-spread tick is finer than the outright tick for some of these contracts, which only matters if you trade spreads. CME lists several quarterly expirations at once, but almost all the volume sits in the nearest one until roll week, so in practice you trade the front quarter and roll forward. Holiday schedules shorten or close sessions, so check the CME holiday calendar around market holidays. The official pages are the MES contract specs, MNQ contract specs, MYM contract specs and M2K contract specs. Specs can change; the exchange page always wins over this article.

Turning a price move into dollars

There are two equivalent formulas. Use whichever matches how your platform shows the move.

Dollars = points moved x point value x number of contracts Dollars = ticks moved  x tick value  x number of contracts

The point value is the multiplier. The tick value is the multiplier times the tick size. If the two formulas give you different answers, you have used the wrong tick size, and that is worth catching before the trade, not after.

Always run the number on the loss side first. Your stop distance in points, times the point value, times your contract count, is the most you plan to lose before costs. If that figure is bigger than your planned risk per trade, the trade is too large, however good the setup looks. Our risk guides go deeper into sizing from a fixed risk amount.

Illustrative example: what does a 10-point move cost?

Illustrative example: one contract of each micro, price moves 10 index points against you.

Illustrative: a 10-point adverse move, one contract, before costs

Contract	Ticks in 10 points	Points x point value	Loss per contract
MES	40	10 x $5	$50
MNQ	40	10 x $2	$20
MYM	10	10 x $0.50	$5
M2K	100	10 x $5	$50

The table tells you something important: "10 points" is not the same size of move in each market. The Dow is quoted in tens of thousands of points, so 10 points there is noise. The Russell 2000 is quoted in the low thousands, so 10 points there is a meaningful move. Comparing stops across these contracts in points is misleading. Compare them in dollars, or as a share of the contract's typical daily range.

Now a fuller illustrative trade, costs included. A trader buys 2 MES at 5,000.00 with a stop at 4,992.50 and is stopped out.

• Move: 7.50 points against, which is 30 ticks.
• Gross loss: 7.50 x $5 x 2 = $75 (check: 30 x $1.25 x 2 = $75).
• Slippage: the stop fills one tick worse, 1 x $1.25 x 2 = $2.50.
• Commissions and exchange fees: illustrative $1.50 per contract per side, so $1.50 x 2 contracts x 2 sides = $6.00. Check your own all-in rate.
• Net loss: $75 + $2.50 + $6.00 = $83.50.

Costs added about 11 percent to the planned loss here. With small stops and frequent trading, costs are a large share of every result in micros, because fees are charged per contract and a micro contract earns a tenth of what an E-mini does for the same move.

Notional value and margin, without the numbers that change

Notional value is the full exposure: index level times multiplier. Illustrative example with round numbers that are not current prices: an S&P 500 level of 6,000 makes one MES worth $30,000 of exposure, and a Russell 2000 level of 2,400 makes one M2K worth $12,000. Your profit and loss follows that full exposure, not the cash you put up.

Margin is the good-faith deposit you must hold to keep the position open. The exchange sets initial and maintenance levels, and your broker may require more. Brokers also set their own intraday (day-trading) margins, which can be far lower than the exchange figure and apply only during set hours. Margin levels change with volatility, sometimes at short notice, so this guide does not quote dollar amounts. For current figures, use the CME Group margins page and your broker's own margin schedule. A low margin requirement is not a measure of how much you can lose; your stop and size are.

Settlement and expiry: what actually happens

None of these contracts deliver shares. If you hold an expiring contract into the third Friday, it stops trading at 9:30 a.m. ET and settles in cash to the Special Opening Quotation, a value built from the opening prices of the index's component stocks that morning. That number can differ from Thursday's close and from where the futures last traded, so holding to expiry adds an overnight gap you did not plan for. Most short-term traders roll to the next quarter during the week before expiry, when volume moves across.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up tick value and point value. MNQ, MYM and M2K all have a $0.50 tick, but their point values are $2, $0.50 and $5. A stop sized "in ticks" on M2K is ten times smaller in points than it looks if you think of it like MYM.
• Comparing stops in points across indexes. A 10-point stop is wide on M2K and almost nothing on MYM. Convert to dollars before you compare.
• Treating MES and MNQ as two separate trades. They often move together. Long one of each is closer to one larger trade than to two independent ones.
• Trading the wrong month. After roll, the old front month thins out quickly and spreads widen. Check the contract month in your order ticket.
• Ignoring the maintenance break. Open orders and positions carry through the 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET break, and price can reopen away from where it stopped.
• Using margin as a sizing tool. Being allowed to hold ten contracts does not mean your plan supports ten contracts.

Pre-trade checklist

1. Confirm the symbol and contract month (for example, the front quarter, not last quarter's contract).
2. Write down the point value and tick size for that contract from the CME spec page.
3. Calculate stop distance in points x point value x contracts, and add round-trip costs plus one tick of slippage per side.
4. Check the total is within your planned risk per trade.
5. Check the calendar for expiry week, holidays and major releases on our news page.

For more on contract mechanics, see the other futures guides. This guide is education only, not investment advice. Futures trading carries a substantial risk of loss, and all examples here are illustrative.

Examples use round, illustrative numbers and are not actual trades or results. Education only — not investment, tax or legal advice.

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