A micro is one tenth of a mini, and that is where the easy part ends. What changes between trading 10 MES and 1 ES is not the exposure, it is what you pay for it, how precisely you can adjust size and, above all, what share of your prop firm cushion every trade puts at stake. This guide puts the figures side by side so the decision comes from the drawdown, not the ego.
The specs, side by side
CME micros replicate the standard contract with a multiplier ten times smaller and the same tick. Official exchange values:
| Market | Mini | Tick | Tick value | Micro | Tick value | $ per point (mini / micro) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | ES | 0.25 | $12.50 | MES | $1.25 | $50 / $5 |
| Nasdaq-100 | NQ | 0.25 | $5 | MNQ | $0.50 | $20 / $2 |
| Dow | YM | 1 | $5 | MYM | $0.50 | $5 / $0.50 |
| Russell 2000 | RTY | 0.10 | $5 | M2K | $0.50 | $50 / $5 |
| Crude oil | CL | 0.01 | $10 | MCL | $1 | $1,000 / $100 |
| Gold | GC | 0.10 | $10 | MGC | $1 | $100 / $10 |
The ratio is always 1:10. A 10-point move in the S&P is $500 per ES and $50 per MES; $0.50 in crude is $500 per CL and $50 per MCL. That is why everything that follows boils down to one question: how many tenths of a mini can your account take?
Granularity: scaling and fine-tuning size
With a single ES your size is 0 or 1: you cannot close half at 1R and let the rest run, or adjust risk to a wider stop without going to zero. With 10 MES you have ten steps. You can exit in three tranches, add a contract on a second entry or drop from 10 to 7 when today's stop is wider than yesterday's. That granularity is what lets risk in dollars stay constant from trade to trade while the chart decides the stop, which is the basis of any serious position sizing.
The price of that flexibility is operational: ten orders instead of one, ten fills that may not get the same price, and an account that looks busier on the prop firm dashboard than it is. None of that is a problem with a plan; all of it is without one.
Commissions: what each unit of exposure costs
Every contract pays its broker commission plus exchange and clearing fees, and a micro's are not one tenth of a mini's. The result is that ten micros almost always cost more than one mini for the same exposure. Assume, purely as an example, $0.60 round turn per MES and $2.50 per ES: 10 MES pay $6 per trade against $2.50 for the ES, more than double. With your real schedule the ratio changes; check it in your broker's fee breakdown, not in the advertising.
When it matters: in scalping. With a 4-tick stop on MES ($5 per contract), $0.60 of commission is 12% of each contract's risk, and gross and net expectancy can have different signs. With a 32-tick stop ($40), the same commission is 1.5%. The shorter the stop, the more commissions weigh and the more the math leans toward the mini, provided the cushion allows it.
Liquidity and spreads
In the indexes, micros are deeply liquid during the regular session and the spread is the same tick as the mini; execution cost per unit of exposure barely changes. In less-traded products, or outside the New York session, the micro's book can be thinner: the spread widens, market orders pay more slippage and a ten-contract exit can cross several levels. If you trade micro crude in the early morning or metals after hours, look at the book before assuming you will get filled like ES at 9:30.
The cushion decides, not the ego
In a prop firm account the real capital is the cushion to the liquidation threshold (how it moves is explained in the guide to trailing drawdown). On a freshly opened Apex 50K that is $2,500, a September 2026 reference value. Now put the same stop on both contracts:
| Contract | 10-point stop | Risk per contract | % of cushion ($2,500) | Consecutive losses to liquidation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ES | 40 ticks × $12.50 | $500 | 20% | 5 |
| 1 MES | 40 ticks × $1.25 | $50 | 2% | 50 |
| 3 MES | 40 ticks × $1.25 × 3 | $150 | 6% | 16 |
One ES with that stop is a bet on five consecutive losses, something that happens to any system several times a year. Three MES leave sixteen. It is not that the mini is "too big" in the abstract: it is too big for that cushion. When the cushion is $10,000, the same ES will be 5%.
When micros and when minis
| Situation | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First days of an evaluation, cushion equal to the drawdown | Micros | Every loss is a large share of the cushion and, under intraday trailing, every peak shrinks it too. |
| Testing a new setup | Micros | You need 30–50 trades to know whether it works; keep the sample cheap. |
| Scaled exits or two-tranche entries | Micros or a mix | Granularity only exists with more than one contract. |
| Consistency rule close to the limit | Micros | Days of similar size; one big day delays the payout. |
| Wide cushion and tight stop with many trades | Minis | Commissions per unit of exposure weigh less and there are fewer fills. |
| Funded account with banked profit | Mix per the ladder | Base R rises in steps; the mix matches size to R without jumps. |
The practical rule: the contract is chosen by the R of your risk plan and the trade's stop; if the R does not fit one mini with that stop, the micro is the correct answer, not the cautious one.
Contract limits and scaling plans
Prop firms cap the number of contracts per account and usually raise the cap as the balance grows. How they count micros toward that cap differs from firm to firm: some count them as a tenth, others as a whole contract, and the rules change. Check yours before planning a scaled exit with twelve micros, and treat the firm's scaling plan for what it is: a permitted maximum, not a sizing recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
Are ten micros exactly the same as one mini?
In price exposure, yes: 10 MES equal 1 ES in dollars per point. In costs, no: every micro pays its own commission and exchange fee, so ten micros usually cost more per unit of exposure than one mini. And not in execution either: ten contracts are ten fills, with more room for slippage in fast markets.
Can I trade micros and minis at the same time in the same account?
Usually yes, and it is the natural way to fine-tune size: one ES plus two MES is 1.2 ES of exposure. What you must check is how the prop firm counts contracts toward its limit (some count each micro as a tenth of a contract, others as a whole one); read its rules.
When does it make sense to move from micros to minis?
When the base R of your plan fits one mini with your usual stop without exceeding the share of cushion you set. With an 8-point ES stop ($400 per contract) and 5% of cushion per trade, you need an $8,000 cushion before one ES enters the plan. Before that, micros are not a step back: they are the correct size.
Next step
Enter your cushion and your stop in the position size calculator: it tells you how many contracts fit in the mini and in the micro with commissions included. And if you trade several accounts at different sizes, the guide to setups and expectancy explains how to compare trades in R without size fooling you.