NQ tick value
One NQ tick (0.25 points) is worth $5.00 per contract, and a full point is worth $20.00. E-mini Nasdaq-100, traded on CME. Put in your own move and size below.
- Tick size
- 0.25
- Tick value
- $5.00
- Point value (1.00 move)
- $20.00
- Ticks in one point
- 4
- Per contract
- $400.00
- Per tick, 1 contract
- $5.00
- Per point, 1 contract
- $20.00
- Same move on 1 MNQ
- $40.00
Import your trades into Actal and every point is turned into dollars for you, with every broken rule and its cost added up.
Journal for free →What an NQ move is worth
Dollars for each move, by number of contracts. Before fees.
| Move | 1 NQ | 2 NQ | 5 NQ | 10 NQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tick (0.25) | $5.00 | $10.00 | $25.00 | $50.00 |
| 1 point | $20.00 | $40.00 | $100.00 | $200.00 |
| 10 points | $200.00 | $400.00 | $1,000.00 | $2,000.00 |
| 25 points | $500.00 | $1,000.00 | $2,500.00 | $5,000.00 |
| 50 points | $1,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $5,000.00 | $10,000.00 |
| 100 points | $2,000.00 | $4,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $20,000.00 |
| 300 points | $6,000.00 | $12,000.00 | $30,000.00 | $60,000.00 |
NQ contract specs
| Exchange | CME |
|---|---|
| Contract | $20 × the Nasdaq-100 index |
| Tick size | 0.25 points |
| Tick value | $5.00 per contract |
| Point value | $20.00 per contract |
| Ticks per point | 4 |
| Micro version | MNQ, $0.50 a tick |
Tick size and value are set by the exchange and don't change by session or contract month. Commissions and margin depend on your broker.
NQ vs MNQ, and what to know
NQ is the full-size E-mini Nasdaq-100 contract. At $20 a point it's one of the biggest per-point contracts retail traders touch.
A normal 20 point stop is $400 on one contract. If your plan says $200 of risk per trade, one NQ is already too big, and that's when you trade MNQ instead: same chart, one tenth of the size.
Most of the expensive mistakes I see on NQ aren't bad entries. They're one extra contract after a loss, which on NQ doubles the damage in a single click.
| Tick value | Per point | 20 point move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NQ | $5.00 | $20.00 | $400.00 |
| MNQ | $0.50 | $2.00 | $40.00 |
Turning ticks into a position size
contracts = your risk ÷ risk per contract
Work out the stop first, then the size. Never the other way round. The position size calculator does this for NQ and every other contract, and tells you when the micro fits better.
Knowing the tick value is the easy part. The part that costs traders money is what happens after two losers: an extra contract, a wider stop, one more trade. A max size rule you check after every session is what keeps the numbers on this page the numbers you actually trade.
Questions people ask
Tick values for other contracts
Import your trades from NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Rithmic, TopstepX and more. Actal turns every tick into dollars, checks every trade against your rules and adds up what each mistake cost you. Free during beta, no card.
Made by Joakim Jusell, futures trader and coach at Jusell Trading Academy.