Calculate tick and point value for a futures contract from contract specs and position size.
How this is calculated
Tick value = tick size × contract multiplier
Point value = contract multiplier
Ticks per point = 1 ÷ tick size
Position value per tick = tick value × number of contracts
Cash risk of a stop = tick value × number of contracts × stop distance in ticks
Worked example
E-mini S&P 500 (ES): tick size 0.25, multiplier $50.00 per point, 3 contracts.
Tick value = 0.25 × 50 = $12.50 per contract, and there are 4 ticks per point.
Three contracts move $37.50 per tick and $150.00 per full index point.
A 20-tick stop (5.00 index points) is therefore 12.50 × 3 × 20 = $750.00 of risk.
Understanding futures tick and point value
Futures contracts specify a minimum price increment — the tick — and a multiplier that converts one full point of price into cash. Together they define what each increment of movement is worth per contract, and every risk calculation on a futures position depends on getting both right. The presets on this page carry published exchange specifications for the commonly traded index, energy and metals contracts, and both fields stay editable so a contract not listed here can still be modelled.
Tick size and multiplier are independent, which is why intuition built on one product transfers badly to another. ES and NQ share a 0.25 tick but differ in multiplier ($50 versus $20 a point), so an ES tick is $12.50 and an NQ tick is $5.00. Crude oil ticks in 0.01 with a 1,000 multiplier, giving $10.00 a tick on a contract whose price moves in cents. Reading a chart in points and assuming the cash consequence is similar across products is one of the fastest ways to take unintended risk.
Micro contracts typically keep the tick size of their standard counterpart and cut the multiplier by a factor of ten, so MES ticks at $1.25 against ES at $12.50. This is what makes micros the practical instrument for accounts where one standard contract would exceed the intended per-trade risk — the position-size calculator will often return zero standard contracts and a workable number of micros on the same inputs.
Express stops in ticks or points first, then convert to cash. A stop placed by chart structure has a fixed distance in points; the cash risk of that distance is entirely a function of the multiplier and the contract count, which are the two things you control. Working in the other direction — deciding a dollar risk and then finding what stop distance it allows — usually produces stops placed inside noise, which is a sizing problem dressed as a stop-placement problem.
Two operational notes. Exchange specifications change from time to time, and some products use a different tick size for calendar spreads than for outright positions, so confirm against the listing exchange's product page and your broker's contract detail before sizing a live trade. And the figures here exclude commissions, exchange and clearing fees and NFA charges, which on micro contracts can be a meaningful share of a small target and should be subtracted before judging whether a setup is worth taking.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tick?
The smallest price increment a futures contract can move, as defined in the exchange contract specification.
How is tick value calculated?
Tick size multiplied by the contract multiplier, then multiplied by the number of contracts held.
Do micro contracts use the same tick size?
Usually yes, with a smaller multiplier, so each tick is worth proportionally less cash.
Where do I find contract specifications?
On the listing exchange's product page, which publishes tick size, multiplier and trading hours.