ELITE Tape | Micro E-mini Futures: Dow's Solo Climb

Micro E-mini futures had exactly one green result this week, and it did not just win, it won big. Micro Dow (MYM) finished as the third most profitable instrument across all ELITE accounts, ahead of every other equity-index contract on the board. Its own full-size sibling, E-Mini Dow (YM), lost money. Both Nasdaq contracts, NQ and MNQ, lost money. Both S&P contracts, ES and MES, lost money. MYM stood alone.

ETF is a futures prop firm for traders who want uncapped Live Elite payouts. It was a rough week overall for ELITE accounts. Only Tuesday closed net positive; Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday all closed in the red. Against that backdrop, one instrument having a genuinely good week, and beating five of its closest relatives to do it, stands out.

The flip side of MYM's climb was NQ, which posted this week's single largest loss by a wide margin. That story, and the rest of the index complex's red week, is covered below.

MNQ held the top spot in trade volume for the 21st consecutive week, and the gap between it and everything else stayed wide. NQ ranked second by volume, the same as most weeks this year.

MES (Micro E-mini S&P 500) held third, with ES (E-Mini S&P 500) fourth and Micro Gold (MGC) fifth. Where this week's list gets interesting is further down: Crude Oil (CL) and Gold (GC) outranked both Dow contracts in trade volume, and Micro Crude Oil (MCL) edged out Micro E-mini Dow (MYM) and E-Mini Dow (YM) for the bottom two spots. Oil and gold pulling ahead of the Dow complex is not the usual order for this list.

Micro Gold has now appeared in the top 10 by volume for six straight weeks. With volume running noticeably heavier than normal by Thursday and Friday, and Monday through Wednesday already carrying their own share of positioning ahead of that, this is a week where knowing position size before adding to a trade mattered more than usual. Elite Trader Funding's Position Size Calculator can help size the next trade before placing it.

Top 10 most traded instruments among ELITE accounts, week of July 13-17, 2026. Relative activity index; top instrument = 100.

NQ was this week's top loss instrument by a wide margin, running several times the size of MNQ's loss in second place. When the full-size Nasdaq contract moves hard against open positions, its per-contract weight can outrun even MNQ's much heavier trade volume. NQ taking the outright top loss spot is itself a change: MNQ had held that spot for the two weeks prior.

ES (E-Mini S&P 500) ranked third in the loss column. Crude Oil, Gold, E-Mini Dow, Micro Gold, Natural Gas (NG), MES, and Micro E-mini Russell 2000 (M2K) filled out the rest of the bottom 10.

Natural Gas showing up in the loss column is a change from recent weeks; it has not been a fixture on this list. Gold and MES, on the other hand, are both repeat entries, discussed further in the Pattern section below.

For the two weeks where MNQ carried the top loss instead of NQ, see the earlier recap on NASDAQ Futures: Micro Takes the Bigger Loss. For a longer look at how MNQ and NQ have traded opposite each other over a full month, see The Cheetah and the Tank.

Top 10 loss instruments among ELITE accounts, week of July 13-17, 2026. Relative loss index; largest loss = 100.

Thursday produced the heaviest losses of the week. Friday was second worst, though its volume ran even higher than Thursday's. Monday was the third-worst session. Wednesday was lighter. Tuesday was the week's lone green day.

Thursday and Friday's declines lined up with a broad, widely reported risk-off move across US equities. Chipmakers and other AI infrastructure names sold off Thursday after a major chip manufacturer raised its capital spending forecast, reviving questions about whether that spending will pay off, and a large-cap tech name fell on reports its flagship AI model was running behind schedule. Friday added an escalation in Middle East tensions to the mix, which pushed oil prices sharply higher the same day Crude Oil cracked this week's volume top 10. Cooler-than-expected inflation data released during the week did little to offset the mood. Nasdaq-heavy names were squarely at the center of both sessions, which lines up with NQ's outsized loss this week.

Note: No US market holiday or early close fell within this data week (July 13-17, 2026). All five sessions ran full trading days.

Daily net P/L direction for ELITE accounts, week of July 13-17, 2026. Relative magnitude index; green = net positive session, red = net negative session.

Friday carried the heaviest volume of the week, narrowly ahead of Thursday. Both sessions ran roughly double the volume of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's average, a jump this data set has not shown in recent weeks. The news covered in the section above, not the calendar, is the driver here: neither day was an equity index futures expiration date. Those contracts expire quarterly, on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, and July 17 was not one of them.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday sat in a moderate, fairly even range by comparison. None of the three approached Thursday or Friday's activity level.

Daily trade volume for ELITE accounts, week of July 13-17, 2026. Relative volume index; highest day = 100, shown in chronological order.

Swiss Franc (6S) led the profitable list for the second week in a row. Nikkei/USD (NKD) held second, its third straight week in the profit column.

Micro E-mini Dow (MYM) took third, the solo climb covered above. Micro Silver (SIL), Micro Bitcoin (MBT), Silver (SI), E-Micro Euro (M6E), Euro FX (6E), 1-Ounce Gold (1OZ), and Micro Crude Oil rounded out the rest of the profitable list. Micro Bitcoin has now finished green for four straight weeks, and Euro FX for three.

Outside of MYM, every other name on this list is a currency pair, a metal, or crypto. No other equity-index contract, full-size or micro, made the cut.

If you found this 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.

ELITE Tape also runs a monthly recap alongside the weekly one. In the June 2026 edition, MNQ led the profitable side for the full month while NQ carried the month's heaviest loss, the same two contracts, with opposite results. See ELITE Tape | June 2026: The Month That Opened Green and Closed Red.

Top profitable instruments among ELITE accounts, week of July 13-17, 2026. Relative profit index; top instrument = 100.

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.

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