Futures tick value calculator
What one tick is worth on the contracts traded on NinjaTrader, and what a move of any size is worth in dollars.
- Per contract
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- In ticks
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- In points
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- One tick
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- One point
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- Tick size
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Tick size, tick value, point value
Tick size is the smallest price increment the exchange allows. Tick value is what that increment is worth on one contract. Point value follows from the two: tick value times the number of ticks in a point.
NQ moves in quarter-points worth five dollars, so a full point is twenty. ES moves in quarter-points worth twelve fifty, so a point is fifty. That difference is why a ten-point move means something very different depending on which one you are in.
| Symbol | Contract | Tick size | Tick value | Ticks per point | Point value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ES | E-mini S&P 500 | 0.25 | $12.50 | 4 | $50 |
MES | Micro E-mini S&P 500 | 0.25 | $1.25 | 4 | $5 |
NQ | E-mini Nasdaq-100 | 0.25 | $5.00 | 4 | $20 |
MNQ | Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 | 0.25 | $0.50 | 4 | $2 |
YM | E-mini Dow | 1.00 | $5.00 | 1 | $5 |
MYM | Micro E-mini Dow | 1.00 | $0.50 | 1 | $0.50 |
RTY | E-mini Russell 2000 | 0.10 | $5.00 | 10 | $50 |
M2K | Micro E-mini Russell 2000 | 0.10 | $0.50 | 10 | $5 |
CL | Crude Oil | 0.01 | $10.00 | 100 | $1,000 |
MCL | Micro Crude Oil | 0.01 | $1.00 | 100 | $100 |
GC | Gold | 0.10 | $10.00 | 10 | $100 |
MGC | Micro Gold | 0.10 | $1.00 | 10 | $10 |
Why the micros are exactly a tenth
Every micro here is a tenth of its full-size sibling: identical tick size, a tenth of the money. MNQ moves fifty cents a tick where NQ moves five dollars, and that ratio is what decides which of the two an account can hold. Work it through: a 40 tick stop on NQ risks $200, so for that stop to be 1% of the account the account has to be $20,000. The same stop on MNQ risks $20. Neither number is a rule about what you should trade, it is just the arithmetic; run your own through the position size calculator.
Your own numbers beat any calculator. Drop a NinjaTrader export on the Trade Lab and it works these figures out from the trades you actually took. It reads the file in your browser and nothing uploads.