Exactly What Is The E-Mini S&P 500?

CME E-mini S&P 500 Futures -- see full S&P 500 and Mini have same hours ..

Trading Hours: 24-hour trading, except ( asr: this is simplified time)
3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. (Chicago Time) Monday - Thursday
3:15 p.m. Friday - 5:00 p.m. Sunday

It seems Trading hours ( all Chicago time) : Mon-Fri: 24 hours ( except 30 min. shutdown )

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After the Closing Bell
Gains and losses on futures contracts are not only calculated on a daily basis, they are credited and deducted on a daily basis. Thus, if a speculator were to have, say, a $300 profit as a result of the day's price changes, that amount would be immediately credited to his brokerage account and, unless required for other purposes, could be withdrawn. On the other hand, if the day's price changes had resulted in a $300 loss, his account would be immediately debited for that amount.

The Value Of The S&P 500 Futures Contract


Why trade the full and E-mini S&P 500/Dow or Nasdaq futures markets?" There are a lot of reasons why, here's just a few of them:
- There is NO market research required.
- Futures margin requirements are a fraction of those needed for day trading stocks ($2,000 vs. $25,000).
- You can profit no matter which way the market moves, up or down. Bad market news can be real good news to you.
- Great potential for daily cash flow.
- Tremendous leverage, liquidity and daily volatility for maximum profit potential.
- There is NO Up tick rule.

S&P 500 E-Mini

S&P 500 annual return

The value of the S&P 500 futures contract can be calculated by multiplying the futures price by $500. For example, if the S&P's are trading at 1089.50, the value would then be $500 X 1089.50, or $544,750. The minimum price fluctuation (tick) for the S&P's are .10, so a tick up or down is worth $25 per contract. A full point has 10 ticks in it, which is worth $250 per contract (.10 X $25 = $250). The E-Mini S&P 500 is on the same price scale as the regular (full) S&P 500, the difference lies in the tick and point values. The E-Mini S&P trades in .25 ticks and is worth $12.50 per tick; and a point is worth $50
($12.50 X 4 = $50). As you can see the E-Mini's are one fifth the size of the full S&P 500 contract.

How Much Does It Cost To Trade The E-Mini's & S&P 500?

The margin requirements to trade the S&P 500 is quite small compared to the overall value of the contract itself.
Margin requirements to keep the S&P 500 Overnight (you need roughly $22,000 per contract to keep an S&P overnight) is much more costly than it is to Day Trade the S&P 500 (you need roughly $10,000 per contract to day trade), but it really depends on the discount futures house that you trade through.

The firm I recommend only requires $5,000 to day trade the S&P and $12,000 to keep an S&P overnight.

The E-Mini S&P's on the other hand are much less expensive to trade. It costs roughly $2,500 to day trade the e-mini S&P's and roughly $7,500 to keep an e-mini S&P overnight.

The E-Mini S&P trades in .25 ticks and is worth $12.50 per tick; and a point is worth $50

We highly recommend to all students to start off trading the e-mini S&P's (if you ever decide to trade them) until you fully understand what they're doing before moving on to the full S&P 500 contract. We think that's a smart move for anyone just starting out.