E-mini
CME Group's electronically traded futures contracts at one-fifth the size of the original floor-traded standard contracts.
E-mini contracts were introduced by the CME in 1997 (starting with ES) to make index futures accessible to retail traders. They are exactly one-fifth the size of the original "big" contracts: ES = $50/pt (vs. SP = $250/pt), NQ = $20/pt (vs. ND = $100/pt).
E-minis trade entirely electronically on Globex, 23 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are now by far the most liquid equity index futures in the world — the "big" contracts still exist but have negligible volume.
The product family includes ES, NQ, YM, and RTY, each tracking a major US equity index.
Related Terms
ES (E-mini S&P 500)
The world's most liquid equity index futures contract — tracks the S&P 500, $50 per point, expires quarterly.
BeginnerMicro Futures
CME contracts at one-tenth the size of E-mini equivalents — designed for fine-grained position sizing and smaller accounts.
BeginnerNQ (E-mini Nasdaq-100)
CME E-mini futures on the Nasdaq-100 index. $20 per point, 0.25-tick. Tracks the top 100 non-financial Nasdaq companies.
BeginnerRTY (E-mini Russell 2000)
CME E-mini futures on the Russell 2000 small-cap index. $50 per point — same multiplier as ES but tracks 2,000 US small-cap stocks.
IntermediateYM (E-mini Dow)
CBOT E-mini futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. $5 per point, 1-point tick. The smallest-notional major US index future.
Beginner