What is NQ? Trading Nasdaq-100 futures

NQ is the ticker for the E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract — one of the most actively traded and closely watched index futures in the world. When day traders talk about "trading NQ," they mean speculating on the intraday direction of the Nasdaq-100, the index of the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq, heavily weighted toward technology and growth names. It's the instrument I trade, so this is the one I know cold.

What NQ tracks

The Nasdaq-100 is dominated by the big technology and growth companies — the kind of names that drive the AI and tech narrative. Because it excludes financials and leans so heavily into tech, NQ often moves differently from the broader market or the Dow, and it tends to be more volatile than the S&P 500 equivalent (ES). That volatility is exactly why active day traders like it: more movement within a session means more opportunity for an intraday strategy — and more risk, which is the trade-off.

The contract mechanics

The essential numbers, which are fixed features of the contract:

• Each full point of the Nasdaq-100 index is worth $20 per NQ contract.
• The minimum price movement (a tick) is 0.25 index points, worth $5.
• So a 10-point move equals $200 per contract; a 1-point move equals $20, or four ticks.
• It trades on CME Globex nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week, with a brief daily maintenance break.
• It's cash-settled — no physical delivery of anything, ever.

These point and tick values don't change; they're built into the contract. What does change is the index level (and therefore the contract's total notional value) and the margin your broker requires, so check those current before trading.

Why NQ moves the way it does

NQ reacts fast to anything affecting big tech and the broader economy: economic data releases, Federal Reserve policy, and especially earnings from the largest index components. When a mega-cap tech company reports, NQ can move sharply. Active traders watch the economic calendar and earnings schedule precisely because these events drive the volatility they're trading around. The index moving quickly in both index-point and dollar terms is what makes it a day trader's instrument — and what makes matching your position size to your account essential.

NQ vs MNQ

NQ is the full-size E-mini. MNQ — the Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 — is exactly one-tenth the size: $2 per point instead of $20, $0.50 per tick instead of $5. Ten MNQ contracts equal one NQ. For most retail traders, and for controlling risk, MNQ is the right starting point, because it lets you trade the same chart and the same setup at one-tenth the dollar risk. Micro futures explained covers this in full.

Why I trade NQ specifically

Liquidity, movement, and hours. NQ is deeply liquid, so my fills land close to where I expect — which keeps slippage, the invisible cost, small. It moves enough within a session for my setup to have something to work with. And it trades nearly around the clock, so I can trade the window that suits me. One market, learned deeply, traded the same way every session. Every one of those sessions is on the record, in points — and since NQ's point value is fixed and public, anyone can convert those points to their own dollar figure at whatever contract size they trade.