MNQ position size calculator
How many Micro Nasdaq contracts fit your risk. Set your stop on the chart in points; the calculator turns it into ticks, dollars and a contract count, and tells you when even one is too many.
Risk is
Adds the risk to reward and what the trade makes if the target is reached.
Position size
1 MNQ contract
Loses $80.00 if the stop is hit (0.8% of the account). Exactly 1.25 would fit, but contracts only come whole, so it rounds down.
= $80.00
Drag the stop or target line, or focus one and use the arrow keys. Each block is what one MNQ loses at the stop.
- Money at risk
- $100.00
- Stop distance
- 40 points, 160 ticks
- Position value
- $50,000
- Risk to reward
- 1:2.5
- Makes at target
- $200.00
- Wins needed to break even
- 29%
MNQ at a glance
- Exchange
- CME Group
- Contract
- $2 × Nasdaq-100 Index
- Tick size
- 0.25 index points
- Tick value
- $0.50
- One point
- $2 (4 ticks)
- Size against NQ
- One tenth: 10 MNQ = 1 NQ
What a move is worth
| Move | 1 MNQ | 1 NQ |
|---|---|---|
| 0.25 points (1 tick) | $0.50 | $5.00 |
| 1 point | $2.00 | $20.00 |
| 5 points | $10.00 | $100.00 |
| 10 points | $20.00 | $200.00 |
| 20 points | $40.00 | $400.00 |
| 50 points | $100.00 | $1,000.00 |
| 100 points | $200.00 | $2,000.00 |
What an MNQ tick and point are worth
MNQ moves in steps of 0.25 index points, and each step is worth $0.50 on one contract. Four ticks make a point, so a full point is $2. A 25-point swing in the Nasdaq, an ordinary morning, is $50 on one MNQ.
Because the dollars per point never change, the only thing that decides your risk on MNQ is how far away your stop is and how many contracts you hold. That is exactly what the calculator above solves.
A worked example
Say the account holds $10,000 and you risk 1% a trade, so $100 is the most this trade may cost. You buy at 25,000 with the stop under a swing low at 24,960: 40 points, or 160 ticks.
One MNQ loses 160 × $0.50 = $80 if that stop is hit. $100 divided by $80 is 1.25, and you can only trade whole contracts, so the answer is 1 contract, risking $80. Tighten the stop to 20 points and each contract risks $40: now 2 contracts fit, risking $80 again.
This is why size follows the stop and not the other way round. Pick the stop where the trade idea is wrong, then let the size absorb the distance.
MNQ or NQ?
NQ is the same market at ten times the size: $20 a point and $5 a tick. The 40-point stop above costs $800 on one NQ, so at 1% risk you would need an $80,000 account to take even one contract.
MNQ exists for exactly this: it lets a smaller account size in steps of $2 a point instead of $20. Ten MNQ move like one NQ, so traders often scale between them as an account grows. If the calculator says 0 contracts on NQ, it shows how many MNQ fit instead.
Sizing MNQ in a funded or evaluation account
Many traders take MNQ in prop firm evaluations, where the limit that matters is a daily loss limit or a trailing drawdown rather than a percentage of the balance. Switch the risk to a fixed amount and enter a slice of that limit, for example a quarter of the daily loss limit, so one bad trade cannot end the account on its own.
Check your firm's own contract limits too: some cap how many contracts you may hold, whatever the calculator says fits.