GLOSSARY · CONTRACTS & MONEY
What is Tick?
A tick is the smallest price move a futures contract can make.
Every futures contract has a fixed minimum price increment called a tick. Price can only move in whole ticks — you can never get a fill halfway between two ticks.
Ticks matter because profit and loss in futures is counted in ticks, not percentages. Once you know a contract's tick size and tick value, you know exactly what every move is worth.
EXAMPLE
E-mini S&P 500 (ES) moves in 0.25-point ticks. A move from 5,000.00 to 5,000.25 is one tick. E-mini Nasdaq (NQ), Micro E-mini S&P (MES) and Micro Nasdaq (MNQ) also use 0.25-point ticks; crude oil (CL) uses $0.01.
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