The E Mini S&P Futures Contract （ES）

The E-mini S&P 500 futures contract (ES) is a trading vehicle offerred by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The price of the Emini SP closely follows the price of the S&P 500 Index. The Emini SP is a perfect and economical way in which to trade 500 of the largest and most important U.S. stocks.

The Emini SP is the smaller version of its "big brother", the standard S&P 500 futures contract. The Emini SP is one-fifth the size of the standard contract. The "E" in Emini stands for electronically traded and the "mini" means the smaller version of the standard contract.

Each full point of an Emini SP futures contract is valued at $50.00. The price of the Emini SP moves in one-quarter increments of $12.50. Each of these one-quarter movements is called a "tick". If the Emini SP moved 3.50 points, it would equal a move of $175.00 ( 3.50 points x $50 per point = $175.00).

The current price of one Emini SP contract is 820.00 points. That means the current market value of one Emini SP contract is $41,000 (820 points x $50 per point). For you to daytrade an Emini SP contract you are only required to put down a very small percentage of the current value of the contract. The amount required, which is similar to "margin", varies among brokers but could be as low or even lower than $500 per contract. You therefore can control an asset currently worth $41,000 by putting just $500 down.

The Emini SP futures contracts expire on a quarterly basis in March, June, September, and December. The trading symbols for 2009 are ESH9 for March; ESM9 for June; ESU9 for September: and ESZ9 for December. There can be more than one of the above contracts traded at the same time. For trading purposes though, we are most interested in and only trade what is called the "lead" contract. For instance, now both the March 2009 and the June 2009 contracts can be simultaneously traded. The "lead" contract is the March 2009 contract and that is the one we would be currently trading.

Normally, the last day that we trade the current lead contract is the Wednesday before the second Thursday of a contract month. The last day to trade the March 2009 contract therefore would be March 11, 2009. The first day that we trade the new lead contract is therefore the second Thursday of the contract month. The day that we start trading the new lead contract is called "rollover day". Rollover day to the June 2009 contract would be March 12, 2009. Exception: If the 1st day of a contract month falls on a Friday, the first Thursday of the month would be rollover day.