ELITE Tape | ES vs MES Futures: Full-Size Wins, Micro Loses

Traders comparing ES vs MES futures got a useful data point this week: E-Mini S&P 500 (ES) was the standout winner across ELITE accounts, posting the week's largest profit by a wide margin. Its own smaller sibling, Micro E-mini S&P 500 (MES), told the opposite story, landing among the week's biggest losses instead.

ETF is a futures prop firm for traders who want uncapped Live Elite payouts. It was a net negative week overall for ELITE accounts. Three of the five sessions closed green, but the two red sessions, Tuesday and Thursday, were large enough that the week finished net negative anyway. Against that backdrop, ES pulling clear of the rest of the index complex, including its own micro contract, stood out.

The week's biggest loss came from a familiar name. E-Mini NASDAQ-100 (NQ) topped the loss list again, and Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100 (MNQ) again led every instrument by trading volume. Both stories, along with the rest of the week's profit and loss picture, are covered below.

Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100 (MNQ) again led every instrument by trading volume among ELITE accounts, still the busiest contract on the board by a wide margin. E-Mini NASDAQ-100 (NQ) held the second spot, followed by E-Mini S&P 500 (ES) and Micro E-mini S&P 500 (MES). Micro Gold (MGC) and Gold (GC) rounded out the metals activity, while Micro Crude Oil (MCL) and Crude Oil (CL) saw lighter but steady trading. Micro E-mini Dow (MYM) and E-Mini Dow (YM) closed out the top 10 most traded instruments.

For a full breakdown of ticker symbols across contract families, see ETF's Forex and Futures Symbol Guide. Choppy weeks like this one are also a good moment to think about position sizing before adding size into a volatile tape; ETF's Risk of Ruin Calculator models how a given win rate and position size play out over a long series of trades.

E-Mini S&P 500 (ES) led every instrument in profit this week, more than four times the size of the next-best performer. Silver (SI) took the second spot, followed by Gold (GC), Natural Gas (NG), and Swiss Franc (6S). Micro E-mini Russell 2000 (M2K), Live Cattle (LE), Ultra U.S. Treasury Bond (UB), Micro Bitcoin (MBT), and E-Mini Russell 2000 (RTY) rounded out the top 10 profitable instruments.

Currency futures carried a chunk of this week's green column too, echoing a story ELITE accounts saw two weeks ago; see Currency Futures Carry the Green Column for that earlier recap.

E-Mini NASDAQ-100 (NQ) posted this week's single largest loss, more than seven times the size of the next-largest. Micro E-mini S&P 500 (MES) took the second spot, followed by Micro Gold (MGC), E-Mini Dow (YM), and Micro Silver (SIL). Crude Oil (CL), Micro Crude Oil (MCL), Micro E-mini Dow (MYM), Nikkei/USD (NKD), and E-Micro Euro (M6E) rounded out the top 10 loss instruments.

MES landing here while its own full-size counterpart, ES, led the entire week in profit is the clearest split of the week: two contracts tracking the same underlying index, pulling in opposite directions across ELITE accounts. It is a mirror image of what happened two weeks ago, when Micro Dow stood alone as the only profitable index future in its family; see Micro E-mini Futures: Dow's Solo Climb. This week it was the full-size contract's turn to be the outlier, not the micro.

ELITE accounts flipped between green and red almost every session this week. Monday closed positive, Tuesday reversed hard into the week's heaviest loss, Wednesday turned positive again, Thursday posted the week's second-heaviest loss, and Friday closed out the week as its strongest green session.

Public market reporting shows broader equity indexes actually moved opposite to ELITE accounts on two of those days. Tuesday, ELITE accounts' worst session of the week, coincided with a broad rally in the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq, driven by a semiconductor rebound and strong cloud results reported by Alphabet. Thursday, ELITE accounts' second-heaviest loss day, coincided with a sharp reversal in those same names: Alphabet's capital spending guidance and a steep drop in Tesla shares following an earnings miss dragged the Nasdaq down more than two percent, compounded by an oil price spike tied to a Red Sea tanker attack. Friday, ELITE accounts' strongest session, coincided with the Dow rebounding as oil prices retreated on hopes of renewed U.S.-Iran talks, even as the Nasdaq extended its slide on continued chip-sector weakness. None of this is presented as a cause of ELITE accounts' results, only as verified market context for the same calendar days.

Friday carried the week's heaviest trading volume among ELITE accounts, ahead of Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Monday saw the lightest activity, with Monday the quietest session of the week.

Streaks and frequency data we're watching:

• E-Mini NASDAQ-100 (NQ) has now been a top-10 loss instrument for 22 consecutive weeks.
• Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100 (MNQ) has held the #1 volume spot for 22 consecutive weeks.
• Micro E-mini S&P 500 (MES) has been a top-10 loss instrument for 8 consecutive weeks.
• Swiss Franc (6S) has been a top-10 profit instrument for 3 consecutive weeks.
• Micro Bitcoin (MBT) has been a top-10 profit instrument for 5 consecutive weeks.
• Micro Gold (MGC) has been a top-10 loss instrument for 3 consecutive weeks.
• E-Mini Dow (YM) has been a top-10 loss instrument for 3 consecutive weeks.

ELITE accounts are sim-funded. The trading activity in these recaps reflects position P/L in sim accounts, not Live Elite payouts. 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 payouts use real capital and there is no cap.

For a full explanation of how payouts work at each stage, see How Prop Firm Payouts Work: Sim vs Live vs Guaranteed. For daily payout structure specifics, see Daily Payout Prop Firms: How Live Elite Pays You. For the longer-running story behind NQ's presence in the loss column, see NQ Futures Prop Firm: Sixteen Weeks in the Loss Column.

ETF is a futures prop firm for traders who want uncapped Live Elite payouts, built on evaluation paths and account options for every stage of that journey. Evaluations are available at elitetraderfunding.app/evaluations, including a 25K Static Evaluation for traders who want to start small. Real trader results, community feedback, and program details are available at elitetraderfunding.app/testimonials,elitetraderfunding.app/rewards,elitetraderfunding.app/affiliates, and elitetraderfunding.app/competitions.

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