E-mini contracts specifications

The first e-mini futures contract was launched in 1997. It was ES, a younger "brother" of the full-sized futures contract for S&P 500 that at that time had already been around for 15 years. Another e-mini contract appeared two years later. Afterwards, we have been treated to quite a few more mini-sized futures contracts that can be traded electronically, thus known as emini futures. Listed below are the most popular of those contracts and their data or specifications as well as the codes for the contract expiration months.

  E-mini contracts data

The table below collects the basic data about some of the most popular e-mini futures contracts traded these days. It includes their name, the ticker name, the tick size as a fraction of the whole point, the tick value in dollars, and the months the contracts roll over or expire. For the explanation of the month codes see another table. Among these contracts you will find stock index e-mini futures, still the most popular of them all, currency e-mini futures, as well as commodity e-mini futures.

Contract Name   Ticker    Tick Size    Tick Value    Rollover Months 

  S&P 500

ES

0.25

$12.5

H, M, U, Z

  NASDAQ 100
NQ
0.25
$5
H, M, U, Z

  Dow Jones
YM
1
$5
H, M, U, Z

  NASDAQ Composite 

QCN
0.50
$10
H, M, U, Z

  S&P Mid Cap 400
EMD
0.05
$25
H, M, U, Z

  S&P Mid Cap 600
SMC
0.05
$10
H, M, U, Z

  Russell 1000
RF
0.10
$10
H, M, U, Z

  Russell 2000
TF
0.10
$10
H, M, U, Z

  Euro
E7
0.0001
$6.25
H, M, U, Z

  Yen
J7
0.000001
$6.25
H, M, U, Z

  Gold
YG
0.10
$3.32
All Months

  Silver
YI
0.001
$1
All Months

  Crude Oil
QM
0.025
$12.5
All Months

  Natural Gas
QG
0.005
$12.5
All Months

  Expiration months codes

Some contracts expire every month, other every three months. The month codes are listed in the table below. The expiration months are the same as the rollover months. The contracts expire a week after their rollover date. Stock index e-mini futures contracts roll over (and expire) in March, June, September, and December. The codes for these months are H, M, U, and Z, respectively, as you can see from the table.

Month   Code  Month   Code  Month   Code 

January
F

February
G

March
H

April
J

May
K

June
M

July
N

August
Q

September
U

October
V

November
X

December
Z

  More e-mini futures information

For more information on trading emini futures, including e-mini basics and some e-mini trading courses, see other articles in this e-mini education section. You can also check out our own original offer, a popular and highly effective e-mini day trading course, KING, that should appeal to both beginners and more advanced emini traders.