Precision costs commission
Ten micros pay ten commissions. On a $500-risk trade that is usually under 2% of the risk — cheap for the ability to scale out.
Per contract, per sideContracts
One tenth the size, most of the usefulness.
Micro futures did something unusual: they made an entire asset class accessible without changing anything about how it works. Same product, same hours, same tick increment — a tenth of the money per tick. For anyone trading a small or funded account, that single fact decides which setups are takeable.
What a micro actually is
A micro contract tracks the same underlying index or commodity as its full-size sibling and moves in the same tick increment. The only thing scaled is the dollar value of that tick, and it is scaled by exactly ten.
So MES follows the S&P 500 in 0.25-point ticks like ES does — but each tick is $1.25 instead of $12.50, and a full point is $5 instead of $50. Charts translate directly. A 40-tick stop is a 40-tick stop on both; it just costs $50 rather than $500 per contract.
That is the whole product. There is no different session, no separate market, no worse execution in the liquid ones. It is the same trade at a tenth of the exposure.
MES / ESS&P 500. Both 0.25 ticks. $1.25 vs $12.50 per tick.1/10
MNQ / NQNasdaq-100. Both 0.25 ticks. $0.50 vs $5.00 per tick.1/10
MYM / YMDow. Both 1.0 ticks. $0.50 vs $5.00 per tick.1/10
MGC / GCGold. Both 0.10 ticks. $1.00 vs $10.00 per tick.1/10
MCL / CLCrude. Both 0.01 ticks. $1.00 vs $10.00 per tick.1/10
Full specifications are the exchange's — the tick value calculator lists them, and your broker's contract page is the authority.
The problem they solve
Take a $50,000 account risking 1% — $500 a trade — with a 40-tick stop.
On ES that is $500 of risk per contract, so the answer is exactly one contract with nothing spare. You cannot scale in, you cannot take a partial, and if you are wrong about the entry by a few ticks you have used your whole budget on a position you cannot adjust.
On MES the same trade is $50 per contract, so the answer is ten. Now you can enter in two clips, take half off at the first target, and let the rest run — and being slightly wrong about the entry costs a tenth of what it did.
That is not a small convenience. It is the difference between an account that can express a strategy and one that can only place a single all-or-nothing bet per idea.
Run your own numbers through the position size calculator — switching the contract from ES to MES changes the answer by a factor of ten and nothing else.
Where the trade-off is
Commission is charged per contract, so ten micros pay ten commissions where one E-mini pays one. That is the entire cost of the flexibility and it is worth being precise about it rather than hand-waving.
At, say, $0.50 per contract per side, ten micros cost $10 round trip against $1 for one E-mini — a $9 difference on a trade risking $500. Under 2% of the risk, for the ability to scale out and size precisely. For most traders that is worth paying.
Where it stops being worth it is size. Once you are trading the equivalent of several full-size contracts, the commission difference compounds into real money and the flexibility matters less, because you already have enough units to scale. Somewhere around five to ten E-mini equivalents the arithmetic usually flips.
The other consideration is liquidity. The major micros — MES, MNQ — are deeply liquid and execute cleanly. The less popular ones are thinner than their full-size siblings, and in overnight hours a size that is nothing at midday can walk through several levels. See slippage in futures trading.
It flips at size
Past roughly five to ten E-mini equivalents, the commission difference stops being noise and the flexibility matters less.
Run your own rateLiquidity varies
MES and MNQ execute cleanly. Less-traded micros are thinner than their full-size siblings, particularly overnight.
Check the book, not the nameWhy they matter most on funded accounts
A prop firm account is defined by its distance to a drawdown floor, not by its nominal balance — and that distance is frequently a few thousand dollars.
With $2,000 of room, a single ES contract on a 40-tick stop is a quarter of everything you have. Four ordinary losing trades and the account is gone, which means the strategy never gets a chance to demonstrate anything. On micros the same four losses cost $200, and the account survives to trade the sequence that matters.
This is also why sizing against the floor rather than the balance is the correct habit — see trailing drawdown explained, because on a trailing account that distance does not grow just because you made money.
And if you run several funded accounts, micros are what make per-account sizing meaningful at all. A leader trading micros can be mirrored into a larger account at a multiple; a leader trading full-size contracts cannot be scaled down below one.
Common questions
What are micro futures?
Contracts that track the same underlying as a full-size futures contract at one tenth the dollar value per tick. MES is a tenth of ES, MNQ a tenth of NQ. Same product, same hours, same tick increment — only the money is scaled.
What is the difference between MES and ES?
Both track the S&P 500 and move in 0.25-point ticks. A tick is worth $1.25 on MES and $12.50 on ES, so a full point is $5 against $50. Ten MES contracts equal one ES in exposure.
Are micro futures worth it?
For small and funded accounts, usually yes — they are what makes scaling in and out possible on an account that could otherwise only take one all-or-nothing position. The cost is commission, charged per contract, which becomes significant once you are trading several full-size equivalents.
Do micro futures have worse liquidity?
The major ones — MES and MNQ — are deeply liquid and execute cleanly. Less popular micros are thinner than their full-size siblings, and the difference shows most in overnight hours where a modest order can move through several price levels.
How many micro contracts equal one E-mini?
Ten. Ten MES equal one ES in exposure, ten MNQ equal one NQ, and so on. The advantage is that you can hold seven, or take three off at a target, which one E-mini cannot do.
Can I trade micros on a prop firm account?
Generally yes, and on a small funded account they are often the only way a setup fits inside the drawdown floor. Contract availability is set by the firm and the platform, so check what your specific account offers.
Start on a simulated account.
Connect a sim or evaluation account and run the whole product against it before you point anything at live money. Nothing about the setup changes when you do.