Micro vs E-mini futures: same market, a tenth of the size

A micro futures contract tracks the same index as its E-mini at one tenth of the size. MES moves exactly like ES but is worth $5 a point instead of $50; MNQ is $2 a point against NQ's $20. Most prop firms count 10 micros as one mini toward your contract limit.

By FundedSim Desk · updated October 20, 2026

The pairs

Same chart, same tick size, same hours. The only difference is what each point costs.

Why micros matter in an eval

Your stop is set by the chart. Your risk is set by the contract. On a 50K eval with a $500 daily stop, a 12-point stop on ES costs $600 per contract: you can't trade it at all. On MES the same stop is $60, so you can trade 8 contracts and still stay under $500.

Micros let you keep the stop the chart needs and still fit it inside the account's rules.

How firms count them

At Apex, Topstep, Tradeify, Lucid and Take Profit Trader, 10 micros count as one mini toward the contract limit. A 50K Apex eval allows 6 minis or 60 micros. Tradeify and Topstep say plainly that mixed positions count at the same 10:1 ratio; check your own firm's wording.

Commissions are not 10:1

A micro costs a tenth to trade per point, but not a tenth in fees. At Apex on Rithmic a round turn is $1.99 on ES and $0.51 on MES. Ten MES contracts cost $5.10 in commissions where one ES costs $1.99. If you scalp for a few ticks, that gap eats real money.

Practice the switch

If you trade ES today, run a week in the simulator on MES with ten times the contracts and the same stops, then a week with the size that actually fits your daily stop. Compare where the drawdown line ends up in each week.