Introduction to futures trading

Beginner Questions Candlesticks, Chart Patterns, and Price Action
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Hi. I’m trying to understand minis and micros in futures trading. I want to start trading ES and NQ but before that I have to learn basics. Can someone explain me minis and micros, contracts, position and risk sizing, and also how to find those charts on TradingView?

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Hi Niccofx,

Welcome to Babypips. I know nothing about these matters, but below is your question to an artificial intelligence application in Edge, which may set you in the right direction for more study.

  1. Absolutely, I’d be happy to help you get started with futures trading, especially with the E-mini (ES) and Micro E-mini (MES) for the S&P 500, and the E-mini (NQ) and Micro E-mini (MNQ) for the NASDAQ-100.

Minis and Micros in Futures Trading

2.E-mini Futures*:

3.Micro E-mini Futures*:

Contracts, Position, and Risk Sizing

4.Contracts*:

  • A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset at a future date at an agreed-upon price. For ES and NQ, these contracts are standardized and traded on exchanges like the CME.

5.Position Sizing*:

  • Position sizing involves determining how many contracts to trade based on your account size and risk tolerance. For example, if you have a $10,000 account and want to risk 1% per trade, you would risk $100 per trade. Given the tick value of the contracts, you can calculate the number of contracts to trade.

6.Risk Sizing*:

  • Risk sizing is about managing how much of your capital is at risk in each trade. This involves setting stop-loss orders to limit potential losses. For instance, if you trade MES with a $5 tick value, and you set a stop-loss 10 points away, your risk per contract would be $50.

Finding Charts on TradingView

To find and use futures trading charts on TradingView:

  1. Search for the Symbol: In the TradingView search bar, type the symbol for the futures contract you want to view (e.g., ES for E-mini S&P 500, MES for Micro E-mini S&P 500, NQ for E-mini NASDAQ-100, MNQ for Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100).
  2. Add to Watchlist: Click on the symbol and add it to your watchlist for easy access.
  3. Chart Analysis: Use TradingView’s charting tools to analyze the price movements. You can apply various technical indicators and drawing tools to help with your analysis2.

Additional Resources

Feel free to ask if you have more questions or need further clarification on any of these points!

Learn more

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  • What are the trading hours for ES and NQ?
  • How do I calculate profit/loss in futures trading?
  • Can you recommend any beginner-friendly books on futures trading?

Response stopped

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Mondeoman got most of it posted but for TradingView you can find these symbols by searching for NQ1! and ES1!. The chart you see will be delayed by 10 minutes if you don’t have data subscription for CME data through TradingView or your connected broker.

Micros are your friend and will give you a better ability to fine tune the amount you risk versus e-mini’s. Especially on NQ.

Make sure you know the day margin and maintenance margin requirements for whatever instrument you trade in the futures market. Holding a position beyond the trading day has a substantially higher margin requirement than intraday trading, so if you need to swing trade do that on the forex cfd side.

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You can find lots of very useful information including lot size and value per point on the CME website. cmegroup.com

ES mini $50 per Point
ES micro $5 per Point

NQ mini $20 per Point
NQ micro $2 per Point

Are you planning to trade directly through the futures exchange (via a futures broker) or trade CFD’s through a CFD broker? Personally I would choose a futures broker and a futures platform. Trading costs are a little more due to platform fees, exchange fees and so on but you have a great choice of platforms and can have access to order book data. Definitely worth looking into if you are serious about futures trading.

Wishing you all the best!

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I can add a couple of small points that may help.

First, don’t make the mistake of assuming (as one easily could, because MES and MNQ have tick-values of $1.25 and $0.50 respectively), that MNQ is likely to be an easier, lower-risk or safer start. The opposite is true: the (M)NQ’s movements are comparatively frantic, jerky, unreliable and dramatic, and it’s one of the wildest rides in the whole of trading. MES is a much safer way to start.

Secondly, although what @BAD14214 said above is of course completely correct, in my opinion he may have understated this bit -

That’s really putting it terribly mildly. The order book is what actually moves the prices in the futures markets, so to try to trade them without using a futures broker and a futures platform would be crazy, IMO, and a very good way consistently to have unnecessary accidents. Futures brokers are also - overall - overwhelmingly better regulated than CFD brokers, and this is a hugely important and significant factor. I wouldn’t even consider trading futures “via CFD’s,” if I were you: that’s not going to be a recipe for success.