What Are E-mini Nasdaq-100 Futures? NQ Explained

NQ is the product root for E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index futures. It refers to a standardized futures product, but a particular agreement also needs its quarterly month and year. A quoted NQ value is therefore not a share price, a single-company position, or a permanent claim on the Nasdaq-100 Index.

The standard quarterly cycle uses March, June, September, and December. The Exchange determines which contracts are listed, so a current screen should be checked instead of assuming a fixed number of available months. How to read E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures quotes explains how to preserve the identity fields. NQ expiration and final settlement explains why the named month also has its own ending process.

The NQ contract unit is $20 times the Nasdaq-100 Index. For one standard NQ contract, a one-index-point change represents $20 before fees, quantity, and the difference between a displayed field and an actual fill. Multiplying an index-point price by $20 describes the contract's specified dollar scale; it does not state an account balance, a margin requirement, or a suggested size.

Futures tick value and contract multipliers separates an index point from the smaller minimum price increment. Futures position sizing shows why contract amount, quantity, and an account's own limits must be considered separately.

An ordinary outright NQ bid or offer moves in at least 0.25 index point. At the $20 multiplier, that is $5 for one contract. Chapter 359 gives a narrower exception: an intermonth spread executed under Rule 542.A can move by 0.05 point, which equals $1 per intermonth spread. The $1 increment does not replace the ordinary outright NQ tick or apply to every two-month display.

Keeping quote type with the price prevents a small spread increment from being mistaken for an outright order increment. It also keeps a point calculation from silently assuming a different contract structure than the one on screen.

NQ is cash settled. For its expiring quarterly month, the final settlement price is a Nasdaq-100 Special Opening Quotation, or SOQ, determined on the third Friday of the delivery month and based on the Nasdaq Official Opening Price, or NOOP, of each component stock. The rulebook supplies contingencies for an affected calendar, so the current contract calendar remains the source for a particular date.

Cash settlement means the futures process uses the contract-defined final price; it does not turn a position into delivery of a 100-stock basket. Cash-settled versus physically delivered futures explains the settlement-design distinction without substituting for NQ's rulebook.

Before using an NQ number, retain the root, contract month-year, price field, source, timestamp, session, and data status. A bid, ask, last trade, daily settlement, final settlement, or continuous-chart value can all be valid observations while meaning different things. Futures contract month codes helps turn a compact symbol into the month whose rules apply.

Margin is collateral for a futures position, not the contract's fixed dollar scale and not a recommendation to take a position. Futures margin versus leverage explains that distinction without inferring an account-specific requirement.

This guide explains standard NQ contract mechanics. It does not provide a live NQ price, a forecast for the Nasdaq-100, a margin requirement, trading advice, or a broker-specific settlement instruction. Current CME rules, data terms, and account documents govern a particular position.