What are E-minis?
E-mini Stock Index Futures are electronically traded contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). If you have never traded the e-mini's, its a good idea to review CME's excellent Guided Tour. Here are some highlights:- An e-mini is a contract to buy or sell the value of an index at a set price and at a set date and time. When we purchase one e-mini we are buying a contract for a specific closing (expiration) date. The closing date for the contract is the third Friday in March, June, September or December.
- Each e-mini contract has a multiplier. The multiplier for the S&P500 e-mini is 50. The multiplier for both the Russell 2000 and S&P 400 e-mini's is 100. The multiplier for the Nasdaq 100 e-mini is 20. The value of the contract is the value of the underlining index times the multiplier. For example, one contract for the S&P500 e-mini which might be priced at $1,540.00 is $77,000. Two contracts would be worth twice that amount, and so on. As you will see, a contract valued at tens of thousands of dollars can be controled for a performance bond ("margin") a fraction of that size.
- The minimum price movement (tick) for the S&P500 e-mini is 0.25 index points. The minimum price movement for the Russell 2000 and S&P400 Mid Cap contracts is 0.10 index points. Therefore, if we own one S&P500 e-mini contract and the price moves in our favor by one tick, we gain $12.50. Likewise, if the price moves against us by one tick, we lose $12.50
- When we buy (or sell) a contract, we are not buying the index. We are only providing the capital required (margin) to settle the account at the end of each day. When we "Day Trade", we close all open positions by the end of the regular trading hours (RTH) session and our account is settled at the end of each day. Consequently, we are not subject to the variations of overnight trading, and therefore, our margin requirements are usually one-half or less the initial contract margin requirements set by the exchange.
- Three e-mini Russell contracts can be day-traded with a minimum account balance of $ 15,000.
Why Autotrade the E-minis?
- SMT Daytrader is an "Auto-Trade Only" e-mini trading system. Your broker follows our timing signals and makes the trades, relieving you of the burden of watching the market all day and manually entering the orders, the stops and the profit targets
- E-minis provide up to 20:1 leverage, compared to 2:1 for the Rydex leveraged index funds.
- The e-minis have a 60/40 Long term/Short term capital gains advantage and they are reported to the IRS as one lump sum rather than individual trades.
- Sign-up today for your 14-day Free Trial. Click HERE to go to our order form page.
- Please use the "Contact" page to find out how to trade our timing signals with an approved broker.