ES, NQ, RTY, CL, GC — the alphabet soup of futures tickers can be confusing. Here is exactly what each contract tracks, what tick sizes look like, and the dollar value of every move on both standard and Micro contracts.
You can trade a futures contract on almost anything — live cattle, lean hogs, soybeans, corn, even frozen concentrated orange juice. But agricultural and exotic commodities are incredibly volatile, heavily influenced by unpredictable weather reports, and usually carry high margin requirements. For the average day trader, those markets are simply too expensive and erratic.
Most day traders focus on highly liquid financial indices, metals, and energy markets. Here is a breakdown of the major instruments you will encounter.
Now that you understand the instruments, you need to learn how to manage risk — and that starts with how futures prices move. Stocks move in pennies, but futures move in increments called ticks. A tick is the minimum price fluctuation a specific contract can make.
Because Micros opened the door for retail traders, the cheat sheet below includes both the standard E-mini contracts and their Micro equivalents. Keep this table handy when calculating your risk.
| Instrument | Ticker | Tick Size | Tick Value (Std) | Micro Ticker | Micro Tick Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | ES | 0.25 points | $12.50 | MES | $1.25 |
| Nasdaq 100 | NQ | 0.25 points | $5.00 | MNQ | $0.50 |
| Dow Jones | YM | 1.00 point | $5.00 | MYM | $0.50 |
| Russell 2000 | RTY | 0.10 points | $5.00 | M2K | $0.50 |
| Crude Oil | CL | 0.01 | $10.00 | MCL | $1.00 |
| Gold | GC | 0.10 | $10.00 | MGC | $1.00 |
| Silver | SI | 0.005 | $25.00 | SIL | $5.00 |
| Natural Gas | NG | 0.001 | $10.00 | (Micro NG) | $1.00 |
| Euro FX | 6E | 0.00005 | $6.25 | M6E | $1.25 |
| Bitcoin | BTC | 5.00 points | $25.00 | MBT | $0.50 |
If your stop loss on the ES is 4 points away, that is 16 ticks. At $12.50 per tick, your risk is $200 per standard contract. On the Micro (MES), that exact same trade only risks $20 — the same setup, the same R:R, scaled to fit any account size.
KLP Ai’s confluence quality scoring tells you which setups are worth taking — so you can wait patiently for STRONG signals instead of forcing trades. Discipline becomes structural, not a constant battle.
