E-mini & Micro E-mini S&P 500 traders
ES & MES Trading Journal
ES and MES (the E-mini and Micro E-mini S&P 500) are the most widely traded pair of futures contracts on CME, and the most common instrument on prop-firm evaluations. Unlike NQ/MNQ or the other contract-specific pages here, the real decision most ES/MES traders face isn't tick math within one contract — it's which of the two to trade at all, and when to move between them, which is what this page covers directly.
The contract math, side by side
ES moves $50 a point and $12.50 a tick (0.25 index points). MES, its micro version, moves $5 a point and $1.25 a tick — exactly a tenth of ES on the identical price move. Fillbook logs every ES and MES fill against these real point and tick values, so P&L, R-multiple, and position sizing reflect the actual dollar risk, whichever one you trade.
ES: $50/point, $12.50/tick — MES: $5/point, $1.25/tick
Choosing between ES and MES isn't a tick-value question, it's an account-size one
A 10-point ES stop on 1 contract is $500 of risk before commissions — a meaningful chunk of a smaller evaluation account's daily-loss limit in a single trade. The same 10-point stop on MES is $50. The right choice tracks your account's actual daily-loss and drawdown room, not a preference for "trading the real contract" — Fillbook's position-size calculator and drawdown tracking make that comparison concrete against your specific account rules rather than a rule of thumb.
Scaling from MES to ES as an account grows
Traders often start on MES while an account is small or an evaluation is fresh, then move some or all size to ES as the account's buffer grows — or split size across both intentionally (e.g. 2 MES instead of rounding up to a full ES contract) for finer position-size control than ES's larger $50/point steps allow. Fillbook tracks both under one account without treating a switch between them as a break in your trade history.
S&P 500 volatility moves the daily-loss needle fast at full size
A single ES point is common intraday noise on an active session — at full size that's still $50 per contract per point, and a handful of adverse points on multiple contracts can approach a daily-loss limit quickly. Fillbook tracks daily-loss and trailing-drawdown room live against your account's actual rules, with breach alerts before a trade puts you over, regardless of which of the two contracts caused it.
Frequently asked questions
ES: $50 per point, $12.50 per tick (0.25 index points). MES: $5 per point, $1.25 per tick — exactly a tenth of ES on the same move, since MES is ES's micro version.
That depends on your account size and how much of your daily-loss or drawdown room one contract's stop distance would actually consume — not a generic answer this page can give you. Fillbook's position-size calculator turns that into a concrete contract count for your specific risk budget and stop distance.
Yes — Fillbook logs each fill against its own contract's real point and tick value, so ES and MES trades in the same account calculate correctly side by side, whether you trade one, the other, or both.
Yes — P&L, R-multiple, and position sizing are calculated per contract using each one's real point and tick value, whether trades are imported via CSV or synced automatically from a supported platform.