Before you click
Futures session checklist
A listed contract has a tick, a multiplier, and variation. Margin is a performance bond, not max loss. Education only. Not a broker. Not a signal.
Object
Which contract, which month?
ES is not MES. Front month is not a serial. Read the spec: tick, tick value, multiplier, last trade date. If you cannot name them, you do not size it.
Clock
Globex is not RTH.
CME hours are not the NYSE cash session. Thin overnight is a different book. Know the halt and the roll. Do not treat 2 a.m. like the cash open.
Risk cap
Contracts from tick value.
Stop ticks × $ / tick = risk per contract. Contracts = floor(dollar risk ÷ that). If you cannot afford one micro, you cannot afford the mini. Initial margin is not the risk.
Invalidation
Variation can call you.
A stop in the platform is not a promise if the book gaps. Size so one stop-out is a budgeted dollar amount, not a margin call story.
No-trade
Sit on your hands.
Wrong month, no spec sheet, sizing from “buying power,” or stacking a second contract because the first one is red. No-trade.
Lab
Open the calculator with the example already filled. Change the numbers. Then size your own ticket — or skip.
MES size — $250 risk Futures courses →Log fills already taken in the browser journal or the Windows journal. A screenshot is not a record.