Tick Size, Tick Value & Sizing Futures Risk
How a futures contract turns price ticks into dollars, and how to convert your stop distance into real risk before you ever click buy.
In futures, price does not move in cents — it moves in ticks, and each tick is worth a fixed number of dollars defined by the exchange. This is the single most important arithmetic in futures trading, because it is the bridge between "my stop is twelve ticks away" and "I am risking 150 USD." Get this conversion wrong and every other piece of your risk management is built on sand. Get it right and futures sizing becomes as clean as any other market.
Tick size and tick value
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