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How to Trade Micro E-Mini Futures
at TradeStation

Micro E-mini futures allow retail investors to trade the major indices with a lower capital outlay than traditional futures contracts.

Setting up a trading account with an online broker gives retail investors access to sophisticated technical analysis tools and charts.

As the notional value of the major stock indices has risen over time, many retail traders have found it difficult to trade futures contracts. The margin requirements have priced many retail investors out of the market. In response, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange1 (CME) created micro E-mini futures.

Here’s how micro E-mini futures work and how you can learn to trade them.

Learn more about trading futures at TradeStation

What Are Micro E-Mini Futures?

Micro E-mini futures contracts are 1/10 the size of the older E-mini futures, which makes them accessible to traders using smaller amounts of capital.

Take the highly traded S&P 500 E-mini with the symbol /ES as an example. It has a multiplier of $50 for each point in the S&P 500 index. This means that if the S&P 500 is currently trading at 4,500, an /ES contract would have a notional value of $225,000. A 10-point gain in the S&P 500 would increase the value of an /ES contract by $500.

Get 50% off futures brokerage fees.

$0.25 to $0.75 per contract per side*

  • Free market data (CME Globex Value Bundle)
  • Special day-trading margin rates
  • Access to over 350 futures and futures option products
  • Powerful futures trading and analysis platform
Learn More

On the other hand, the S&P 500 micro E-mini with the symbol /MES has a multiplier of $5. At the same S&P 500 level of 4,500, an /MES contract would have a notional value of $22,500, which is 1/10 the notional value of the /ES. This means that if the S&P 500 index goes up 10 points, the /MES contract will gain $50.

CME offers micro E-mini futures for the S&P 500 (/MES), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (/MYM), the NASDAQ 100 (/MNQ), and the Russell 2000 (M2K). And traders have nearly 24/7 access to the market.

Opening a Trading Account

You can open an account with an online broker and begin trading micros with lower margins. You’ll want to find a platform with powerful technical analysis, robust trading tools, and customer service support with experienced representatives. On the TradeStation website, you’ll find educational resources and information about our award-winning platform.

Futures Trading Demystified:
Your Futures Questions Answered

Download the FREE GUIDE

to get answers to the most asked futures questions.

Download Now

Developing Trading Strategies

After opening your account, you can begin to develop your own trading strategies and learn how to detect signals in the market. By using your online broker’s technical analysis tools, you may be able to interpret the price and volume statistics to spot trends.

Trading micro-E mini futures is a great way to access the futures market without risking a large amount of capital. You can use your broker’s backtesting model to test your strategies, or try paper trading to see how your ideas turn out without risking capital.

Monitoring the Status of Trades

If your plan is to day trade, you’ll want to watch the status of your positions carefully, since day trading regulations can impact margins and access.

If you plan on holding open futures contracts for longer time periods, you’ll need to watch the price movements to make sure your positions are moving as expected. Price movements in futures contracts can be swift and volatile. Unexpected changes in market direction may warrant quick action on the part of investors. Stop-loss orders are one type of protection against sudden, large price changes, but you should still check your position often.

Download TradeStation’s ebook, Futures Trading Demystified: Your Futures Questions Answered, to learn the ins and outs of futures trading.

Futures Trading Demystified: Your Futures Questions Answered

In Futures Trading Demystified, get answers to the most commonly asked futures questions. Get your free guide to learn:

FutureseBook
  • How futures trading works
  • Why traders choose futures
  • Answers to frequently asked futures questions
  • And much more

Sources

  1. Chicago Mercantile Exchange: “Micro E-mini Equity Futures” “ https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/micro-e-mini-futures.html”
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Get 50% off futures brokerage fees.

$0.25 to $0.75 per contract per side*

  • Free market data (CME Globex Value Bundle)
  • Special day-trading margin rates
  • Access to over 350 futures and futures option products
  • Powerful futures trading and analysis platform
Learn More
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Past performance, whether actual or indicated by historical tests of strategies, is no guarantee of future performance or success. There is a possibility that you may sustain a loss equal to or greater than your entire investment regardless of which asset class you trade (equities, options, futures or cryptocurrencies); therefore, you should not invest or risk money that you cannot afford to lose. Online trading is not suitable for all investors. View the document titled Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Before trading any asset class, customers must read the relevant risk disclosure statements on our Other Information page. System access and trade placement and execution may be delayed or fail due to market volatility and volume, quote delays, system and software errors, Internet traffic, outages and other factors.

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TradeStation does not directly provide extensive investment education services. However, useful investment and trading educational presentations and materials can be found on TradeStation’s affiliate’s site, YouCanTrade.com, which is owned by You Can Trade, Inc., an investment education media company.

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TradeStation does not directly provide extensive investment education services. However, useful investment and trading educational presentations and materials can be found on TradeStation’s affiliate’s site, YouCanTrade.com, which is owned by You Can Trade, Inc., an investment education media company.

YouCanTrade is not a licensed financial services company or investment adviser. Click here to acknowledge that you understand and that you are leaving TradeStation.com to go to YouCanTrade.


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TradeStation Securities, Inc. is an SEC-licensed broker dealer and a CFTC-licensed futures commission merchant (FCM), and a member of FINRA, SIPC, CME, NFA and several equities and futures exchanges, which offers to self-directed investors and traders Equities accounts for stocks, exchange-traded products (such as ETFs) and equity and index options, and Futures accounts for commodity and financial futures and futures options (TradeStation Securities does not offer Crypto accounts).

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