/ES
/ES is the ticker symbol for the E-mini S&P 500 futures contract, traded on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). The forward slash in front of a symbol is a convention many trading platforms use to signal "this is a futures contract," as opposed to a stock or ETF, so /ES, /NQ, /CL and similar symbols all point to futures products rather than shares.
A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell something — in this case, the value of the S&P 500 index — at a set price on a future date. You don't own any stocks by trading /ES; you're trading a contract whose price moves in step with the index. Each contract has a multiplier, so a given move in index points translates into a fixed dollar amount of profit or loss per contract, which is why futures let traders control a large notional position with relatively little capital upfront (margin).
/ES trades nearly around the clock on the CME's Globex electronic system, with a daily maintenance break, unlike stocks which only trade during exchange hours plus limited pre/post-market windows. This near-24-hour access is a major reason day traders and swing traders use /ES to react to overnight news, economic data releases, or moves in overseas markets before the stock market opens.
The nuance beginners miss: /ES is not the S&P 500 index itself, and it's not an ETF like SPY. It's a derivative contract with its own expiration dates (quarterly), its own margin rules set by the exchange and your broker, and price behavior that can diverge slightly from the cash index due to factors like time to expiration and interest rates. There's also a smaller version, /MES (Micro E-mini S&P 500), which has a fraction of the dollar risk per point for traders who want smaller size.
This term depends on a rule or threshold that changes over time, so no specific figure is quoted here. The point multiplier for /ES (commonly cited as $50 per point historically) and current initial/maintenance margin requirements should be confirmed against CME Group's official /ES contract specifications page, since margin levels are adjusted periodically by the exchange and can vary further by broker. Trading hours details (e.g., daily maintenance break time) should also be checked against CME Globex's current schedule.
Day traders use /ES to speculate on or hedge broad market direction with high liquidity, extended trading hours, and leverage, but that same leverage means losses accumulate as fast as gains, and margin requirements can change with volatility.
Suppose /ES is trading at 5,000.00 and a trader buys one contract. If the price rises to 5,010.00, that's a 10-point gain. With the E-mini S&P 500's fixed multiplier per point, that 10-point move translates into a set dollar profit for the trade (before commissions and fees) — the exact multiplier and current margin requirement should be checked against CME's contract specifications rather than assumed.
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