Futures Tick Value Chart (2026): ES, NQ, CL, GC and 26 More

A futures tick value is the tick size (the smallest price step the exchange allows) multiplied by the contract multiplier: 0.25 x $50 = $12.50 on the E-mini S&P 500 (ES), $5.00 on NQ, YM and RTY, $10.00 on crude oil (CL) and gold (GC), and $15.625 on the 10-year note (ZN). The number most charts leave out is what a round turn costs measured in ticks: at Discount Trading's rates as of October 9, 2026, that is 0.30 ticks on ES, 2.24 on the Micro Nasdaq (MNQ) and 8.00 on 1-Ounce Gold (1OZ).

Key takeaway

Multiply tick size by the multiplier and you have the tick value: ES $12.50, NQ $5.00, CL $10.00, GC $10.00, ZN $15.625 and 6E $6.25, with most micros at one tenth and Micro Silver at one fifth. Fees do not shrink with the contract, so at Discount Trading's October 2026 rates one round turn costs 0.30 ticks on ES, 0.90 on MES, 2.40 on MGC and 8.00 on 1-Ounce Gold. The shorter your target in ticks, the more that gap decides which contract works.

How is futures tick value calculated?

Tick value equals tick size times the multiplier (the dollars the contract pays per one unit of price). Point value is the multiplier itself, and ticks per point is one divided by the tick size, so ES has 4 ticks per point and pays $50 per point.

On some contracts the terms collapse into one number. On the E-mini Dow (YM) the tick is 1 index point, so tick value and point value are both $5.00. On the E-mini Russell 2000 (RTY) the multiplier is $50, the same as ES, but the tick is 0.10, so a point holds 10 ticks of $5.00 instead of 4 ticks of $12.50. If multipliers are new to you, start with how a futures multiplier works.

Picture two ladders side by side. On the ES ladder the bottom rung is the tick size, 0.25 index points; the middle rung is the multiplier, $50 per point; the top rung is the product, $12.50 per tick. On the CL ladder the rungs read $0.01 per barrel, 1,000 barrels, and $10.00 per tick, as published on NinjaTrader's crude oil contract page.

Every tick value on the chart is built the same way: the smallest price step times what the contract pays per unit of price.

The word "point" causes sizing errors. On CL, traders often call a $1.00 move a point: that is 100 ticks and $1,000 per contract, not $10. On ZN a point holds 64 ticks, and on the Euro FX contract (6E) the unit people count is the pip, which is 2 ticks. Before you trust a stop written in points, check which point the writer means.

What is the tick value of ES, NQ, CL, GC and other futures?

One tick is worth $12.50 on ES, $5.00 on NQ, YM and RTY, $10.00 on CL, NG and GC, $25.00 on SI, $12.50 on HG, $15.625 on ZN, $31.25 on ZB, $6.25 on 6E and 6J, and $12.50 on each grain. The table below gives all 30 contracts, with two columns of our own: the round-turn cost (one buy plus one sell) in dollars and in ticks.

Specs are as published by NinjaTrader (for example its E-mini S&P 500 contract page and E-nano contract specs), MetroTrade and, for wheat, Ironbeam, cross-checked against each other. Where broker pages disagreed, the table keeps the value at least two sources share and whose arithmetic closes. We could not load CME Group's own specification pages, so confirm a contract on your platform's spec screen before you size real money.

Computed by Phoenix Technologies from Discount Trading's non-member per-side rates as of October 9, 2026 (exchange fee + NFA fee + commission, before platform routing fees); method: round turn = 2 x per side, round turn in ticks = round turn / tick value.

Contract	Tick size	Tick value	Point value	Round turn	Round turn in ticks
ES (E-mini S&P 500)	0.25 pt	$12.50	$50 per point	$3.76	0.30
MES (Micro S&P)	0.25 pt	$1.25	$5 per point	$1.12	0.90
NES (E-nano S&P)	0.5 pt	$0.25	$0.50 per point	$1.12	4.48
NQ (E-mini Nasdaq-100)	0.25 pt	$5.00	$20 per point	$3.76	0.75
MNQ (Micro Nasdaq)	0.25 pt	$0.50	$2 per point	$1.12	2.24
NNQ (E-nano Nasdaq)	0.5 pt	$0.10	$0.20 per point	$1.12	11.20
YM (E-mini Dow)	1 pt	$5.00	$5 per point	$3.76	0.75
MYM (Micro Dow)	1 pt	$0.50	$0.50 per point	$1.12	2.24
RTY (E-mini Russell 2000)	0.10 pt	$5.00	$50 per point	$3.76	0.75
M2K (Micro Russell)	0.10 pt	$0.50	$5 per point	$1.12	2.24
CL (WTI crude, 1,000 bbl)	$0.01	$10.00	$1,000 per $1.00	$4.00	0.40
MCL (Micro WTI, 100 bbl)	$0.01	$1.00	$100 per $1.00	$2.20	2.20
NG (natural gas, 10,000 MMBtu)	$0.001	$10.00	$10,000 per $1.00	$4.20	0.42
MNG (Micro natural gas)	$0.001	$1.00	$1,000 per $1.00	$2.40	2.40
GC (gold, 100 oz)	$0.10	$10.00	$100 per $1.00	$4.30	0.43
MGC (Micro Gold, 10 oz)	$0.10	$1.00	$10 per $1.00	$2.40	2.40
1OZ (1-Ounce Gold)	$0.25	$0.25	$1 per $1.00	$2.00	8.00
SI (silver, 5,000 oz)	$0.005	$25.00	$5,000 per $1.00	$4.30	0.17
SIL (Micro Silver, 1,000 oz)	$0.005	$5.00	$1,000 per $1.00	$3.20	0.64
HG (copper, 25,000 lb)	$0.0005	$12.50	$25,000 per $1.00	$4.30	0.34
MHG (Micro Copper)	$0.0005	$1.25	$2,500 per $1.00	$2.40	1.92
ZT (2-year note, $200,000)	1/8 of 1/32	$7.8125	$2,000 per point	$2.30	0.29
ZF (5-year note)	1/4 of 1/32	$7.8125	$1,000 per point	$2.30	0.29
ZN (10-year note)	1/2 of 1/32	$15.625	$1,000 per point	$2.60	0.17
ZB (30-year bond)	1/32	$31.25	$1,000 per point	$2.74	0.09
6E (Euro FX, EUR 125,000)	0.00005	$6.25	$12.50 per pip (0.0001)	$4.20	0.67
6J (Japanese yen, JPY 12,500,000)	0.0000005	$6.25	$12.50 per 0.000001	$4.20	0.67
ZC (corn, 5,000 bu)	1/4 cent	$12.50	$50 per cent	$5.30	0.42
ZS (soybeans, 5,000 bu)	1/4 cent	$12.50	$50 per cent	$5.30	0.42
ZW (wheat, 5,000 bu)	1/4 cent	$12.50	$50 per cent	$5.30	0.42

The exchange fees inside the totals are the broker's statement of them, not CME's own page.

For choosing among the four index contracts, see ES, NQ, MES or MNQ for day trading; for the nano rows, read the full case on E-nano costs. One contract is missing on purpose. CME announced a 10-barrel WTI contract for August 30, 2026 and then put it on hold, as FX News Group reported on October 3, 2026, so MCL at $1.00 a tick is the smallest crude contract in this sheet.

How do you read a ZN price like 110'165?

110'165 means 110 points plus 16.5 thirty-seconds, which is 110.515625 in decimal and $110,515.625 of notional value on the $100,000 face of a 10-year note (an illustrative price, not a market quote). The digits after the apostrophe are thirty-seconds, and a trailing 5 means one half of a thirty-second.

That half is the tick. According to MetroTrade's ZN specification, "Minimum price fluctuation is one-half of 1/32 of a point ($15.625 per contract)." A full 32nd is therefore $31.25, and a point is $1,000 made of 64 ticks. MetroTrade's own example reads the same way: 110'155 is 110 + 15.5/32.

Split 110'165 into the handle, 110, and the fraction, 16.5/32. Turn the fraction into a decimal, 0.515625, and add it back to get 110.515625. Now let the price rise to 111'00: the gap is 0.484375 points, which is 31 half-32nd ticks, worth 31 x $15.625 = $484.375 per contract.

The digits after the apostrophe are thirty-seconds, and the trailing 5 is the half-32nd that makes the ZN tick $15.625, not $31.25.

CME's own systems use the same rule. A worked example in the CME Client Systems Wiki, headed "2 Yr Note FUTURE, TDF 32, NDDP 3", converts 104.8828125 by taking .8828125 x 32 = 28.25, so the price is 104 and 28.25/32.

On the 2-year note (ZT) the tick is one eighth of a 32nd on $200,000 of face, $7.8125; on the 5-year (ZF) it is one quarter of a 32nd on $100,000, also $7.8125. Platforms print a half-32nd differently (165, 16+ or 16.5), and no single public source covers them all.

The common myth is that ZN ticks in full 32nds at $31.25. At least one broker knowledge base lists exactly that for ZN, which is double the outright tick. The 30-year bond (ZB) does tick in full 32nds: MetroTrade gives 1/32 and $31.25, and reads 115'16 as 115.5. NinjaTrader's ZB page prints 1/4 of 1/32 and $7.8125, which appears to be the calendar-spread increment printed as the outright tick.

Old charts fail too. The CBOT's U.S. Treasury futures reference guide, undated but from around 2005, states: "T-bond futures trade in minimum increments of one thirty-second of a point equal to $31.25." The same page gives the 5-year note a tick of half a 32nd and the 2-year a quarter, both $15.625. Today ZF ticks in quarters and ZT in eighths, so a chart copied from that era doubles both tick values; we could not find the dates of those changes.

Is a 6E tick the same as a pip, and how do grain ticks work?

No: a 6E tick is half a pip, $0.00005 per euro on EUR 125,000, worth $6.25, so a one-pip move (0.0001) is 2 ticks and $12.50. Grains tick in quarter cents: corn (ZC), soybeans (ZS) and wheat (ZW) move $0.0025 per bushel on 5,000 bushels, $12.50 a tick and $50 a cent.

MetroTrade's 6E specification says: "Minimum price fluctuation is $0.00005 per Euro for outright trades (half a pip)". A spot forex trader who sets a 10-pip stop on 6E and sizes it as 10 ticks has risked twice the planned dollars: 20 ticks and $125, not $62.50.

The Japanese yen (6J) is quoted to seven decimals. The tick is $0.0000005 per yen on JPY 12,500,000, also $6.25, and a move of 0.000001 is $12.50. One broker page lists the 6J tick as $0.0001 worth $12.50, which fails its own arithmetic: 0.0001 x 12,500,000 is $1,250.

Grain prices print in cents and eighths of a cent, which trips people because the tick is a quarter. A quote ending in '2 means 2/8, a quarter cent and one tick; '4 means half a cent and two ticks; '6 is three ticks. MetroTrade's corn page says prices are in eighths and then reads its own '4 example as a quarter cent, so check the convention on your platform rather than on a spec page.

How many micros or nanos equal one mini?

Ten micros equal one mini on every pair in this sheet except silver, where 5 Micro Silver (SIL) equal one SI, and 100 nanos or 100 1-Ounce Gold contracts equal one full-size contract in exposure. So 1 ES = 10 MES = 100 NES, 1 NQ = 10 MNQ = 100 NNQ, 1 GC = 10 MGC = 100 1OZ, and 1 CL = 10 MCL.

The one-tenth rule comes from the exchange's design. CME Group's 2019 Micro E-mini launch announcement said "The new Micro E-mini contracts will be one-tenth the size of CME Group's existing E-mini futures on the respective equity indexes." The same ratio holds for MYM, M2K, MCL, MNG, MGC and MHG. Micro Silver is 1,000 ounces against 5,000, so its tick is $5.00 against $25.00, one fifth.

Picture four columns of tiles. ES at $50 per point sits above 10 MES tiles at $5 and 100 NES tiles at $0.50; NQ at $20 above 10 MNQ at $2 and 100 NNQ at $0.20; GC at $100 per $1.00 above 10 MGC at $10 and 100 1OZ at $1. The fourth, shorter column is the exception: one SI at $5,000 per $1.00 over just 5 SIL at $1,000.

Per point the steps are clean tenths, except silver at one fifth; per tick the nano and 1OZ steps break because their ticks are coarser.

Per point those ratios are exact; per tick, the nano and 1OZ ratios are not, because their ticks are coarser. NES moves in 0.5 points against 0.25 on MES, and 1OZ in $0.25 against $0.10 on MGC. So an NES tick ($0.25) is one fifth of an MES tick, and a 1OZ tick one quarter of an MGC tick.

In dollars, an ES tick equals 50 NES ticks rather than 100, and a GC tick equals 40 1OZ ticks. That is why an ES stop at a price ending in .25 or .75 has no exact NES price to land on.

These ratios are what a trade copier applies when a mini master drives micro followers: 1 ES on the master becomes 10 MES on the follower. Thor does this with cross-platform symbol mapping and decimal leverage (for example 0.5x or 2.7x); the setup is covered in mapping symbols between accounts. No copier fixes the nano rounding problem, because a follower can only fill at prices its own contract allows.

How much does a round turn cost in ticks?

A round turn costs 0.30 ticks on ES and 0.75 on NQ, but 0.90 on MES, 2.24 on MNQ, 2.20 on MCL, 2.40 on MGC, 4.48 on NES and 8.00 on 1OZ, at Discount Trading's non-member rates as of October 9, 2026. Fees fall far less than contract size, so per unit of exposure the small contracts cost about 3 to 10 times more.

The Discount Trading commission schedule shows why. ES pays $1.88 per side ($1.38 exchange fee, $0.01 NFA fee, $0.49 commission), while MES pays $0.56 ($0.35, $0.01 and $0.20). The commodity micros do worse because their commission stays at $0.49: MCL pays $1.10 per side and MGC $1.20, against $2.00 for CL and $2.15 for GC. The broker's own caveat reads: "The above was believed to be the latest fee schedule as of 10/09/2026."

Picture ten bars on one baseline, measured in ticks. The ES bar barely rises to 0.30, NQ reaches 0.75, CL 0.40 and GC 0.43, while their micro siblings stand at 0.90, 2.24, 2.20 and 2.40. Two bars break the scale: NES at 4.48 and 1OZ at 8.00.

Fees shrink far less than contract size, so every smaller contract starts each trade further behind, and 1OZ starts 8 ticks behind.

The next table puts each large contract beside its smaller sibling, with the round turn in price units (index points, or dollars per barrel or ounce).

Computed by Phoenix Technologies from Discount Trading's per-side rates as of October 9, 2026; method: round turn in price units = 2 x per side / point value, ratio = smaller / larger.

Pair	Larger: round turn in price units	Smaller: round turn in price units	Cost ratio
ES / MES	0.0752	0.2240	2.98
NQ / MNQ	0.1880	0.5600	2.98
CL / MCL	0.0040	0.0220	5.50
GC / MGC	0.0430	0.2400	5.58
MGC / 1OZ	0.2400	2.0000	8.33
MES / NES	0.2240	2.2400	10.00

The equity micros cost 2.98 times the mini per point, MCL and MGC about 5.5 times, 1OZ 8.33 times MGC, and NES exactly 10 times MES. So the belief that a micro is a one-tenth copy of the mini, costs included, is false: a strategy that clears its costs on ES may not clear them on MES. A copier that maps 1 ES onto 10 MES pays $11.20 per round turn on the follower against $3.76 on the master.

These figures are a floor. Discount Trading adds platform clearing and routing fees of $0.05 to $0.40 per side, and slippage comes on top (see where slippage comes from). The NFA's own assessment fee FAQ says that from July 1, 2027 "the NFA assessment fee, payable by FCMs with respect to futures contracts, will be $.02 per side".

That adds $0.02 per round turn: 0.08 ticks on 1OZ, 0.0016 ticks on ES. No public source gives typical bid-ask spreads in ticks for 1OZ, NES or NNQ; for every other line item, see the full futures cost stack.

How much is a 10-tick stop worth on each contract?

A 10-tick stop costs $125 on ES, $12.50 on MES, $50 on NQ, $5 on MNQ, $100 on CL, $10 on MCL, $100 on GC, $156.25 on ZN, $312.50 on ZB and $62.50 on 6E, before costs. Ten ticks is a distance, not a size; its dollar value depends on the row.

Picture a grid of ten tiles, each a contract with its 10-tick stop printed large. The ZB and ZN tiles dwarf the rest, ES, CL and GC sit in the middle at $100 to $125, and the micro tiles shrink to $5 to $12.50. The grid says what one contract risks per 10 ticks; your risk budget says how many contracts fit.

Ten ticks is a distance, not a risk: its dollar value depends on the contract, so size the stop in ticks and convert per row.

Costs belong inside the stop. For one MES trade with a 10-tick stop:

The stop itself: 10 x $1.25 = $12.50.
The round turn: $1.12, which is 0.90 ticks.
The real risk: $12.50 + $1.12 = $13.62, or 10.90 ticks.
The same sum on the other index rows: 10.30 ticks on ES ($128.76) and 12.24 ticks on MNQ ($6.12).

Decide where the stop belongs on the chart first and convert it to dollars second; where to place the stop first covers the methods.

Should you trade the mini, the micro or the nano?

Trade the smallest contract whose round-turn cost is still a small share of your target: divide cost in ticks by target in ticks, and if the result is a quarter or more, that contract is too small for that target. With an illustrative 8-tick target, one round turn eats 3.8% of it on ES, 11.2% on MES, 28.0% on MNQ, 27.5% on MCL, 30.0% on MGC, 56.0% on NES and 100% on 1OZ, where an 8-tick winner of $2.00 pays exactly the $2.00 round turn.

The quarter is our working line, not an industry standard, and the tradeoff: micros cost more per point because they buy finer sizing. Use these rules:

If a 10-tick stop on the mini is larger than your per-trade risk budget, use the micro. The higher cost per point is the price of sizing you could not otherwise get.
If your target is 8 ticks or fewer, trade the mini where your budget allows, or widen the target until the micro's cost is under a quarter of it. Very short holds can also meet firm rules, covered in prop firm microscalping rules.
If you trade 1OZ, NES or NNQ, treat them as sizing tools for small accounts, not scalping tools; picking a micro by stop size compares the alternatives.
If you copy a mini master to micro followers, run the cost-in-ticks column for the follower contract, not the master's.
If a spec page's tick value fails the arithmetic (tick size x multiplier), trust the arithmetic and a second source, as with ZN and 6J above.
If your broker publishes a new fee schedule, recompute the last column; the July 1, 2027 NFA change is already announced.

Go deeper

Frequently asked questions

Is the tick value different at each broker?

No. Tick size and multiplier are set in the exchange's contract, so ES pays $12.50 a tick at every broker. What differs is the fee per contract, which changes the round-turn cost in ticks. Occasionally a broker's spec page is simply wrong, as with the ZN and 6J examples in this sheet.

How much is one point on NQ?

One NQ point is $20 and holds 4 ticks of $5.00. On MNQ a point is $2, made of 4 ticks of $0.50, and on NNQ it is $0.20 with only 2 ticks of $0.10.

What is the MGC tick value?

Micro Gold ticks in $0.10 per ounce, worth $1.00 per contract, and pays $10 per $1.00 move. GC is ten times that at $10.00 a tick, while 1-Ounce Gold pays $0.25 a tick on a coarser $0.25 step.

Does the tick value change when the price goes up?

No. Dollars per tick are fixed by the multiplier, while notional value moves with price. ZN at 110'165 controls $110,515.625, yet one tick is still $15.625.

What is the RTY tick value?

RTY ticks in 0.10 index points worth $5.00, with 10 ticks per point and $50 per point, the same multiplier as ES. M2K is one tenth of that: $0.50 per tick and $5 per point.

What is the ZB tick value?

The 30-year bond ticks in 1/32 of a point, worth $31.25 on outright trades, with $1,000 per point. If a ZB page shows $7.8125, it appears to be the calendar-spread increment, not the outright tick.

Will futures fees go up in 2027?

The NFA assessment fee rises from $0.01 to $0.02 per side on July 1, 2027, adding $0.02 to each round turn. That is 0.0016 ticks on ES but 0.08 ticks on 1OZ. Exchange fees and commissions change on each firm's own schedule.

Do micro futures have the same tick size as the minis?

Yes for the micros: MES ticks in 0.25 like ES, MCL in $0.01 like CL, MGC in $0.10 like GC, and SIL in $0.005 like SI. The E-nanos and 1-Ounce Gold are the exceptions, with coarser ticks than their parents.