- Size every trade from dollars of risk, not from the contract cap. Contracts = risk ÷ (stop in points × point value + costs).
- On a $2,000 drawdown, one full NQ contract only fits a 10-point stop at $200 risk. Micros are how prop traders get room to breathe.
- Measure risk against distance to the floor, not account balance, and recompute it every morning.
A $50K futures evaluation lets you trade four to seven E-mini contracts. That cap is a ceiling, not a recommendation. At four NQ contracts, a 25-point stop is a $2,000 loss: the whole account on one trade. Traders who size from the cap rather than from their stop are why so many evaluations end in the first week.
Know what one point is worth
These are the values that matter for sizing, from CME’s contract specifications. Micros are one-tenth of the E-mini, which makes them the most useful tool a prop trader has.
| Contract | Tick size | Tick value | $ per point | Micro | Micro $ per point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-mini Nasdaq-100 (NQ) | 0.25 | $5.00 | $20 | MNQ | $2 |
| E-mini S&P 500 (ES) | 0.25 | $12.50 | $50 | MES | $5 |
| E-mini Dow (YM) | 1 | $5.00 | $5 | MYM | $0.50 |
| E-mini Russell 2000 (RTY) | 0.10 | $5.00 | $50 | M2K | $5 |
| Crude oil (CL) | 0.01 | $10.00 | $1,000 | MCL | $100 |
| Gold (GC) | 0.10 | $10.00 | $100 | MGC | $10 |
Most prop firms count micros at a 10:1 ratio against your mini limit, so a five-contract cap usually means up to 50 micros. Check your firm’s page: a few count differently.
The sizing formula
Always round down. Round-turn costs are your firm’s commission and fees per contract, plus a slippage allowance. Stops are market orders when they trigger, and in a fast NQ tape one or two ticks of slippage per side is normal; around major data releases it can be many points.
Where the risk number comes from
Use a fixed fraction of your distance to the floor, not of the account size. On a fresh $50K account with a $2,000 drawdown, the distance is $2,000. Our pass-probability simulations show that risking 5–10% of that per trade gives a trader with a real edge the best odds, so $100–$200 a trade.
Ready-made sizing grids at $200 and $300 risk
Nasdaq: MNQ ($2 a point)
| Stop (points) | $ risk per MNQ | MNQ at $200 risk | MNQ at $300 risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $20 | 10 (= 1 NQ) | 15 |
| 15 | $30 | 6 | 10 (= 1 NQ) |
| 20 | $40 | 5 | 7 |
| 30 | $60 | 3 | 5 |
| 40 | $80 | 2 | 3 |
| 60 | $120 | 1 | 2 |
NQ’s typical intraday range is wide enough that 10-point stops sit inside ordinary noise for much of the session. If your setup needs 30–40 points, you are an MNQ trader on a 50K account, whatever the contract cap says.
S&P: MES ($5 a point)
| Stop (points) | $ risk per MES | MES at $200 | MES at $300 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | $20 | 10 (= 1 ES) | 15 |
| 6 | $30 | 6 | 10 (= 1 ES) |
| 8 | $40 | 5 | 7 |
| 10 | $50 | 4 | 6 |
| 15 | $75 | 2 | 4 |
Crude oil: MCL ($1 a tick) and gold: MGC ($10 a point)
| MCL stop | At $200 | At $300 | MGC stop | At $200 | At $300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 ticks ($0.20) | 10 | 15 | $5 | 4 | 6 |
| 30 ticks | 6 | 10 | $8 | 2 | 3 |
| 40 ticks | 5 | 7 | $10 | 2 | 3 |
| 50 ticks | 4 | 6 | $15 | 1 | 2 |
Crude and gold gap hard on inventory data and Fed headlines. If you trade them through releases, widen the slippage allowance, not just the stop.
Size from the floor, and recompute every morning
The floor is what fails you, so the honest unit of risk is the distance between your balance and the floor. That distance changes in three ways traders forget:
- It shrinks as you win (trailing accounts). At $51,500 on a $2,000 end-of-day trailing account your floor is $49,500, still $2,000 away. But if you are at $51,500 after peaking at $52,000, the floor is $50,000 and you have only $1,500.
- It grows once the floor locks. Many firms stop trailing at your starting balance (Topstep, Take Profit Trader) or just above it (Lucid and Legends lock at $50,100). After that, profit is pure cushion.
- A daily loss limit is a second, closer floor. With a $1,000 daily limit (Apex and Alpha Futures in the evaluation, Earn2Trade at $1,100), a $250-risk plan gives you four losers a day, not eight.
Scaling up without giving it back
- Start every account in micros. The first $500–$1,000 of profit is your buffer against the trailing floor.
- Step up only on closed profit. Add size when the end-of-day balance crosses a level, never mid-trade.
- Step down faster than you step up. Two losing days in a row halves your size until you make back one of them.
- Mind scaling plans. Several firms limit funded contracts until you’ve made a set profit (Bulenox’s EOD option, Funded Futures Network, Lucid’s funded starting contracts). Your plan must work at the smaller size.
Position-size calculator
Pick a mini or a micro contract, enter your stop in points or ticks and the dollars you’re willing to lose, and add your round-turn costs (micros have their own fee box, because firms don’t charge a tenth of the mini fee). The calculator returns how many minis or micros fit, the best mix of the two, and the true dollar risk after rounding.
One NQ would risk $400 on this stop. Use MNQ micros, tighten the stop, or skip the trade.
Five sizing mistakes that fail accounts
- Sizing from the contract cap. The cap is the firm’s limit, not your risk plan.
- Same contracts, different stops. Five MNQ on a 15-point stop is $150; on a 50-point stop it’s $500.
- Forgetting the open-trade drawdown on intraday trailing accounts. At Bulenox or TradeDay, a winner that runs 40 points and comes back to breakeven has raised your floor by $80 per MNQ for nothing.
- Adding to losers. Averaging down doubles size exactly when the floor is closest.
- Ignoring correlation. Long NQ and long ES at the same time is one trade at double size.