NQ (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.
Formula
P&L = (Exit − Entry) × $20
NQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 index — the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, heavily weighted toward mega-cap tech (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta).
- Multiplier: $20 per index point
- Tick size: 0.25 points → $5/tick
- Trading hours: Same 23-hr Globex session as ES
- Settlement: Cash (SOQ of NDX) on same quarterly cycle as ES
- Micro equivalent: MNQ ($2/pt, $0.50/tick)
NQ has higher beta than ES and is prone to larger intraday swings — a double-edged sword for day traders. Many traders watch NQ relative to ES as a sentiment gauge for risk appetite in tech.
Example
NQ at 19,200. Notional = 19,200 × $20 = $384,000/contract. A 50-point move = $1,000. With initial margin ~$21,000 that's roughly 18:1 leverage. A 50-point NQ range day gives 10 full "points" in ES terms — the contracts are not directly comparable without knowing their dollar impact.
Related Terms
E-mini
CME Group's electronically traded futures contracts at one-fifth the size of the original floor-traded standard contracts.
BeginnerES (E-mini S&P 500)
The world's most liquid equity index futures contract — tracks the S&P 500, $50 per point, expires quarterly.
BeginnerGlobex
CME Group's electronic trading platform — the venue where ES, NQ, CL, GC, and virtually all CME futures trade electronically, 23 hours/day.
BeginnerIndex Futures
Futures contracts whose underlying is a stock market index — settled in cash against the final index value at expiration.
BeginnerInter-Commodity Spread
A spread trade that is long one futures product and short a related but different product — e.g., long ES / short NQ.
AdvancedMicro Futures
CME contracts at one-tenth the size of E-mini equivalents — designed for fine-grained position sizing and smaller accounts.
BeginnerYM (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