NQ Futures (E-mini Nasdaq-100): Tick Value, Expiries, Order Flow

NQ contract specifications

The rulebook defines NQ as $20 times the Nasdaq-100, quoted in index points. The minimum increment is 0.25 point, equal to $5 per contract. Four ticks make a point, so one index point is worth $20. NQ 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.

NQ expiry rule and next contracts

Trading in an expiring NQ contract ends at the regularly scheduled start of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market 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 NQM7 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 NQM7 listed until then. For NQZ6, the default moves to the next listed month on December 10, 2026 (8 calendar days before December 18, 2026), and NQZ6 stays selectable with its badge until that date.

NQ tick value and P&L arithmetic

• 10 ticks (2.5 points) = 10 × $5 = $50 per contract.
• A 15-point stop is 60 ticks: 15 × $20 = $300 per contract, $900 on 3 contracts.
• The same 15 points on MNQ are worth $30 per contract.
• One tick of slippage, the automatic backtest's default, costs $5 per NQ contract on each entry.

Reading NQ order flow

With row resolution off, Senzoukria's default, an NQ 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.

NQ and MNQ are separate books on the same index. The NQ tape is where E-mini lots print, and it does not echo into MNQ: an MNQ trader who wants to see NQ flow has to open NQ as its own chart. MNQ does not trade while the primary NQ contract month is halted.

Senzoukria's NQ/MNQ guide uses four ticks per row as its reference footprint step, which on NQ is one Nasdaq-100 point per row. Keep one step for a whole sample: per-level measures such as the bar POC or imbalance counts change with the row width, while bar totals do not.

Using NQ in Senzoukria

• Symbol picker on a Rithmic or Databento CME source: type NQ; on September 25, 2026 the listed contract is NQZ6 (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 QQQ options are converted to the NQ price with a spot ratio and labelled with the underlying ("CW · QQQ"); an options data source is required.
• Replay lists NQ in the Indices group and replays the broker's tick history, without the order book. In the automatic backtest, set Point value ($) to 20; the field defaults to 2, the MNQ value.