ELITE Tape | Currency Futures Carry the Green Column

There was nowhere to hide in the micro futures prop firm world this week, and the same held true for the full-size contracts sitting right next to them, with one exception: currency futures carried the only real green on the board. Every single session closed net negative for ELITE accounts between July 6 and July 10, the first fully red week in recent memory across this recap series. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday all closed in the loss column, with no session breaking the run.

ETF is a futures prop firm for traders who want uncapped Live Elite rewards. MNQ (Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100) sat at the center of the week's story again, posting the single largest loss of any instrument while also holding its usual commanding lead in trade volume. NQ (E-Mini NASDAQ-100) ranked second in the loss column behind it.

NASDAQ, S&P 500, and Dow futures all landed in the red this week, full-size and micro contracts alike. The one exception among the major equity-index families came from Russell 2000 futures, covered in the section on this week's profitable instruments below.

For a look at how the NASDAQ complex traded the week before this one, see the earlier ELITE Tape recap on NASDAQ Futures: Micro Takes the Bigger Loss.

MNQ held the top spot in trade volume for the 20th consecutive week. No other instrument has come close to challenging it at the top of the volume rankings across that entire run, and this week was no different: the gap between MNQ and the next-most-traded instrument remained wide.

NQ ranked second by volume behind MNQ. MES (Micro E-mini S&P 500) held third, with Micro Gold (MGC) fourth and ES (E-Mini S&P 500) fifth. Gold (GC), E-Mini Dow (YM), Micro E-mini Dow (MYM), Micro E-mini Russell 2000 (M2K), and Micro Silver (SIL) rounded out the top 10.

Micro Gold has now appeared in the volume top 10 for five straight weeks, and Micro E-mini Russell 2000 for six. The list has remained concentrated in NASDAQ, S&P, and metals contracts for most of the year, a pattern that continued unchanged this week.

MNQ was the top loss instrument this week for the second week in a row, and the margin between MNQ and the second-place instrument was substantial.

MNQ carries one-tenth the contract size of NQ, but back-to-back weeks at the top of the loss column show that a smaller per-contract size does not cap total exposure when volume concentrates this heavily in one instrument. In a week where every session closed red, knowing exactly how much room is left before hitting a trailing drawdown limit matters more than usual. Elite Trader Funding's Trailing Drawdown Calculator can show where an account actually stands before the next session opens.

NQ ranked second in the loss column, with ES (E-Mini S&P 500) close behind in third. MES, Micro E-mini Dow (MYM), Gold (GC), E-Mini Dow (YM), Micro Gold (MGC), Micro Silver, and Micro Crude Oil filled out the rest of the bottom 10.

Gold has now appeared in the top loser list for seven consecutive weeks. For the longer-running story behind NQ's presence in this column, see the earlier recap: NQ Futures Prop Firm: Sixteen Weeks in the Loss Column.

There was no relief this week. Thursday produced the heaviest losses of the five sessions, narrowly ahead of Monday. Wednesday came in third. Tuesday and Friday were both lighter, with Friday edging out as the least negative session of the week, though still solidly in the red.

Unlike the prior week, no US market holiday or early close fell within this data window. Every session ran a full day, and every session still closed lower.

• Mon 7/6: Relative volume moderate - Net Loss (2nd Heaviest)
• Tue 7/7: Relative volume moderate - Net Loss
• Wed 7/8: Relative volume higher - Net Loss
• Thu 7/9: Relative volume highest of the week - Net Loss (Heaviest)
• Fri 7/10: Relative volume lowest of the week - Net Loss (Least Negative)

Thursday was the busiest day of the week, and it also produced the week's heaviest losses. Volume and losses moved together rather than apart this time.

Friday carried the lightest volume of the week by a wide margin, a normal end-of-week pattern with no holiday behind it this time. Friday's lighter activity also lined up with its status as the least negative session, continuing a loose pattern in this data set where the quietest day tends to be the least damaging one.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all sat in a moderate range, with Wednesday running somewhat higher than the first two days of the week. None of the five sessions escaped the loss column regardless of how much or how little was traded.

Swiss Franc (6S) led the profitable list this week, ahead of Nikkei/USD (NKD) in second. Both currency and international-index contracts, rather than the domestic equity-index complex, carried the green column this week.

In a fun bit of parallel timing, the same week Swiss Franc topped the profit list, its namesake country's national football team was making history of its own: a fourth all-time World Cup quarterfinal appearance, matching 1934, 1938, and 1954, before falling to Argentina 3-1 in extra time on July 11. No connection between the two, just a nice coincidence.

Russell 2000 futures were the one bright spot among the major equity-index families. Both E-Mini Russell 2000 (RTY) and its Micro counterpart, Micro E-mini Russell 2000 (M2K), finished in the profitable column while NASDAQ, S&P 500, and Dow futures all closed the week in the red at every contract size.

Platinum (PL), Euro FX (6E), British Pound (6B), Micro Bitcoin (MBT), Crude Oil (CL), and Japanese Yen (6J) rounded out the rest of the profitable list. Micro Bitcoin has now finished in the green for three straight weeks, and Crude Oil for the same stretch.

If you found this post outside the usual prop trading circles, welcome. ELITE Tape is a weekly breakdown of what sim-funded futures traders at Elite Trader Funding actually traded, and how it went. Real position history data, every week, no forecasts.

For a look back at a month where MNQ and ES were on the winning side instead, see The Cheetah and the Tank. This week's outcome was close to the opposite for both instruments.

Streaks and frequency data we're watching:

• MNQ: 20 consecutive weeks as the top traded instrument among ELITE accounts. No week in the data set has produced a different result at the top of the volume chart.
• NQ has now sat in the top-loser column for 20 consecutive weeks, nearly five months running. It's the longest-tenured member of the loss side of the ledger, a pattern worth watching as it approaches the half-year mark, suggesting this isn't a one-off dip but a sustained trend in one of the desk's most heavily traded instruments.
• MNQ: 8 consecutive weeks in the top loser list , and the second straight week it has taken the top spot outright rather than trailing NQ.
• Gold: 7 consecutive weeks in the top loser list. It has held a consistent spot in the lower tier of the loss column throughout that run.
• Micro Bitcoin and Crude Oil: 3 consecutive weeks each in the top profit list. The only two instruments with an active multi-week green streak at this point.

ELITE accounts are sim-funded. The trading activity in these recaps reflects position P/L in sim accounts, not Live Elite rewards. Traders reach an Elite Sim-Funded account either by passing an evaluation or by purchasing Direct to Funding (DTF), which skips the evaluation step, and those who do well may progress to Live Elite, where rewards use real capital and there is no cap.

For a full explanation of how rewards work at each stage, see How Prop Firm Payouts Work: Sim vs Live vs Guaranteed. For daily reward structure specifics, see Daily Payout Prop Firms: How Live Elite Pays You.

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