E-mini futures trading is relatively new to the world of futures trading. The first e-mini was introduced by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 1997. Since then the e-minis have grown into four different contracts following the S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, S&P 400 and Russell 2000 indexes. E-minis are one-fifth the size of their traditional counterparts making them affordable to trade for individual investors.

For a variety of reasons, E-mini contracts are one of the fastest growing futures contracts on the market. They offer a cost effective way to trade the stock indexes, and equal the broad market exposure of the market indexes. The growth of trading e-minis creates high liquidity offering large volume and tight bid/ask spreads. Online trading allows fast order execution, global access, and potentially lower costs than trading a selection of stocks. You can utilize a variety of trading strategies and styles from spread strategies to day trading.

E-Mini Contracts Are Traded on the Chicogo Mercantile Exchange

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is known as the index exchange due to the large popularity of the E-minis. E-mini futures are traded electronically through your PC or licensed commodities broker. CME E-mini contracts trade in quarterly time fames: March, June, September, and December are expiration months.

E-minis trade in "ticks" or a minimum price movement. Each "tick" is a change in price for the futures contract. The S&P 500 trades in ticks of .25, each tick equals a price change of $12.50. A full point move in the E-mini S&P500 would equal a $50 change in the contract value. The NASDAQ 100 trades in ticks of .5 representing $10. The Russell 2000 and S&P 400 contracts both trade in ticks of .10 with a value of $10 per contract.