MES Futures (Micro E-mini S&P 500): Tick Value, Expiries, Order Flow

MES contract specifications

The rulebook defines MES as $5 times the S&P 500, quoted in index points. The minimum increment is 0.25 point, equal to $1.25 per contract. Four ticks make a point, so one index point is worth $5. MES is cash-settled: the expiring month settles to a special opening quotation of the index on the third Friday of the contract month. Senzoukria's contract table carries the same tick, multiplier and venue (CME); the simulated account, the picker's tick hint and the heatmap's price grid read them from it.

MES expiry rule and next contracts

Trading in an expiring MES contract ends at the regularly scheduled start of trading on the primary listing exchange on the day of the final settlement price, the third Friday of the contract month. If the index is not scheduled to be published that Friday, settlement moves to the first preceding business day on which it is.

June 18, 2027 is the observed Juneteenth holiday, so the exchange calendar puts the MESM7 last trading day on June 17, 2027. Senzoukria's expiry engine counts Monday to Friday without a holiday table and uses June 18, 2027 instead, so its picker keeps MESM7 listed until then. For MESZ6, the default moves to the next listed month on December 10, 2026 (8 calendar days before December 18, 2026), and MESZ6 stays selectable with its badge until that date.

MES tick value and P&L arithmetic

• 10 ticks (2.5 points) = 10 × $1.25 = $12.50 per contract.
• A 4-point stop is 16 ticks: 4 × $5 = $20 per contract, $60 on 3 contracts.
• The same 4 points on ES are worth $200 per contract.
• One tick of slippage, the automatic backtest's default, costs $1.25 per MES contract on each entry.

Reading MES order flow

With row resolution off, Senzoukria's default, an MES footprint shows four rows per index point, each cell holding the volume traded at the bid and at the ask at that exact price. The fixed choices give 2 ticks = 0.5, 4 ticks = 1, 8 ticks = 2, 16 ticks = 4, 32 ticks = 8 points per row; grouping keeps bar totals exact, but the POC then names a row instead of a price.

MES quotes the same S&P 500 price as ES, in the same 0.25-point increments, at one tenth of the exposure. It is a separate order book: its footprint, delta and DOM describe MES executions only, and a large ES print never shows up there. Watching the ES tape next to an MES position is legitimate, but ES has to be opened as a second chart.

Imbalance ratios and big-trade filters tuned on ES should be re-derived on MES rather than copied, because the lots at each price are MES lots. The rulebook also states that MES does not trade while the primary ES contract month is halted.

Using MES in Senzoukria

• Symbol picker on a Rithmic or Databento CME source: type MES; on September 25, 2026 the listed contract is MESZ6 (December 2026).
• Heatmap and DOM show the book of that exact contract; the heatmap ladder header names the contract and its venue, CME.
• GEX overlay: levels computed from SPY options are converted to the MES price with a spot ratio and labelled with the underlying ("CW · SPY"); an options data source is required.
• Replay lists MES in the Indices group and replays the broker's tick history, without the order book. In the automatic backtest, set Point value ($) to 5; the field defaults to 2, the MNQ value.