Nasdaq-100 Futures Explained: NQ, MNQ and What Each Move Is Worth

Key takeaways

One NQ is worth $20 per point, one MNQ $2 and one NNQ $0.20. Ordinary tick sizes are 0.25 points for NQ and MNQ, and 0.50 points for NNQ.

Movement × multiplier × quantity translates a price move into dollars before costs. One NQ, ten MNQ and one hundred NNQ each total $20 per point; fills and total costs can differ.

NQ and ES points refer to different indexes. Compare price levels, the size of the move and quantity as well as the contract multiplier.

Notional value, margin and planned loss describe different things. Verify expiration, trading rules and schedules; a stop does not guarantee an exact loss.

Full transcript

What does a hundred points mean?

Imagine someone tells you they made one hundred points trading Nasdaq futures.

That sounds like a complete result. But one hundred points in what contract? How many contracts? And what did the trade cost?

One NQ contract turns a one-hundred-point favorable move into two thousand dollars before costs. One MNQ turns it into two hundred dollars.

The chart movement can look similar while the account exposure is very different.

In this lesson, we'll explain Nasdaq-100 futures: what the index represents, how NQ compares with its smaller versions, and how to translate the movement into dollars without confusing points, ticks or position size.

All prices and trades in our examples are invented. Unless stated otherwise, the calculations leave out costs.

What the Nasdaq-100 represents

First, the name Nasdaq can refer to different things.

There's the stock exchange where companies list their shares. There's the Nasdaq Composite, an index covering a much wider collection of Nasdaq-listed securities. And there's the Nasdaq-100, the index behind NQ futures.

The Nasdaq-100 measures one hundred of the largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq, selected under the index's rules.

It isn't every company on the exchange. It isn't the entire U.S. stock market. And it isn't limited to companies headquartered in the United States.

It's often associated with technology, but its companies span more than one industry. Treating it as simply a technology-only index leaves out part of what you're trading.

The companies also don't have equal influence.

The index uses modified market capitalization weighting. Company size matters, with adjustments under the methodology rather than an equal share for every company.

A larger weight means a company's price change can have more influence on the index. A rising headline number doesn't mean every company rose, or that the same number of companies rose and fell.

That matters when you compare Nasdaq-100 futures with S&P 500 futures. Some companies appear in both underlying indexes, but the membership and weights differ.

The markets can move together without moving by the same amount. A relationship between them isn't a guarantee that one will follow the other on your next trade.

The NQ futures contract

NQ is the symbol for E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures, traded on CME Globex.

Buying a contract creates a long futures position. A rise in your contract's price helps that position; a fall hurts it. Selling to open creates a short position, with the opposite exposure.

You're not buying a package of company shares. You're holding a futures contract whose price changes affect the value of your position.

The futures price and the cash index are related, but they don't have to display the same number. For your trade calculation, use the prices at which your actual futures contract was bought and sold.

Turning points into dollars

For one NQ contract, each full point is worth twenty dollars.

Suppose you buy one NQ at twenty thousand and later sell it at twenty thousand and twenty-five.

That's twenty-five points in your favor. Twenty-five times twenty gives a five-hundred-dollar gross gain.

If you instead sell at nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy-five, that's twenty-five points against the long position: a five-hundred-dollar gross loss.

For a short position, a lower buyback price helps. Sell at twenty thousand and buy back twenty-five points lower, and the gross gain is five hundred dollars for one NQ.

Direction determines whether the move helps or hurts. The multiplier and quantity determine how many dollars it represents.

Ticks and points

An ordinary NQ futures quote moves in quarter-point steps.

From twenty thousand, the next higher prices are twenty thousand point two five, point five zero, point seven five, and then twenty thousand and one.

Each quarter-point step is one tick. Four ticks make a point. With twenty dollars per point, one NQ tick is worth five dollars.

So twenty ticks is five points, worth one hundred dollars for one NQ. Twenty points is eighty ticks, worth four hundred dollars.

The word after the number changes the calculation.

MNQ and NNQ: smaller contract sizes

The Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 contract uses the symbol MNQ.

It's worth two dollars per point, one tenth of NQ. Its ordinary tick is also a quarter point, worth fifty cents.

For our twenty-five-point move, one MNQ changes by fifty dollars before costs, compared with five hundred dollars for one NQ.

There's also an E-nano Nasdaq-100 contract, symbol NNQ, worth twenty cents per point.

Its minimum price step is half a point, worth ten cents per contract. That differs from the quarter-point step in NQ and MNQ.

The same twenty-five-point move changes one NNQ by five dollars before costs. Check whether your broker or account provider offers the product rather than assuming every listed contract is available to you.

A smaller contract gives you smaller increments of exposure. Quantity can build that exposure straight back up.

Ten MNQ contracts are worth twenty dollars per point in total. So are one hundred NNQ contracts. That's the same multiplier exposure as one NQ.

This doesn't promise the same quotes, fills or total cost. They're separate contracts with their own orders and trading activity. Per-contract charges and the difference between buying and selling prices matter.

Comparing NQ with ES

Now consider a common comparison: NQ versus ES.

One NQ is twenty dollars per point. One ES is fifty dollars per point. That alone doesn't establish which position has less risk.

Their points belong to different indexes, with different price levels and different movement.

At our invented starting prices of twenty thousand for NQ and five thousand for ES, a one-percent move is two hundred NQ points but fifty ES points.

For one contract, those hypothetical moves represent four thousand dollars in NQ and two thousand five hundred dollars in ES, before costs.

These aren't forecasts or a claim about their usual daily ranges. They show why comparing only dollars per point, or the same number of points, can mislead you.

You need the size of the move, the multiplier and the quantity. You also need to understand the conditions in which that move might occur.

Notional value, margin and planned loss

At a futures price of twenty thousand, one NQ has a notional value of four hundred thousand dollars: price times the twenty-dollar multiplier.

One MNQ has forty thousand dollars of notional value. One NNQ has four thousand dollars.

Notional value describes the scale of exposure. Margin is the funds required to support your obligations. Neither number tells you the exact loss your next trade will produce.

Requirements can change, and brokers or account providers can impose additional restrictions. A lower amount required to open a position doesn't reduce its dollars per point.

Suppose a hypothetical long entry has a planned stop fifty points lower.

That distance represents one thousand dollars for one NQ, one hundred dollars for one MNQ, or ten dollars for one NNQ, before costs and any difference between the planned stop and the actual exit.

Use ten MNQ instead of one, and the planned price distance represents one thousand dollars again.

A stop doesn't guarantee that exact loss. Fast movement, unavailable liquidity or a trading interruption can prevent an exit at the price you expected.

Expiration and settlement

The product symbol is only part of a futures contract's identity. You also need its expiration month and year.

The quarterly cycle uses March, June, September and December, with month codes H, M, U and Z. A platform might show NQZ26 for December twenty twenty-six. Check its full contract description and symbol format.

These Nasdaq-100 futures are cash settled. Expiration doesn't deliver a collection of company shares.

Final settlement normally uses a special opening quotation based on the component stocks' official opening prices on the third Friday of the expiration month. Check the actual calendar and your provider's deadlines for exceptions.

The final settlement value isn't simply the last futures quote you happened to see.

Keeping exposure beyond expiration may involve closing the earlier contract and opening a later one. That's a roll, and it involves trades. A continuous chart changing its display doesn't automatically move an existing position.

Always check which expiration the chart shows and which expiration your order will trade.

Trading conditions and the pre-order check

Futures trade beyond regular stock-market hours, but conditions aren't identical throughout that time.

Check the current exchange schedule, maintenance periods, holidays and account restrictions. Check whether quotes are live or delayed, the spread between buying and selling prices, and the quantity available.

A printed chart price isn't a promise that your order can fill there. Price limits and trading halts can also restrict trading.

Before an order, identify the product, expiration, tick size, dollars per point and quantity. Calculate both a favorable and an unfavorable move. Then check costs, margin, settlement and execution conditions.

NQ, MNQ and NNQ connect to the same index family. Their contract sizes let you express that exposure in different increments, but the total position is what reaches your account.

Understanding those mechanics doesn't prove a strategy works. It lets you measure what you're doing accurately before deciding how much confidence it deserves.

Next: Dow Futures

Explore Dow price weighting and translate YM, MYM and NDOW points and ticks into dollars.