Tick value

Tick value is a key concept in derivatives trading, particularly for futures contracts that are quoted in non-dollar units—such as index points, bushels, or tons. It represents the dollar amount gained or lost when the contract price moves by one tick, the smallest possible price increment. Understanding tick value is essential for converting price movements into monetary terms, allowing traders to calculate potential profit or loss on a position.

A closely related term in FX markets is the pip value, which represents the monetary value of a one-pip price movement.

Here are tick values for some popular futures contracts as of 2025:

CME:

• E-mini S&P 500 Futures (ES): $12.50 per tick
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 Futures (NQ): $5.00 per tick
• 10-Year T-Note Futures (ZN): $15.625 per tick
• Euro FX EUR/USD Futures (6E): $6.25 per tick
• Crude Oil Futures (CL): $10.00 per tick
• Gold Futures (GC): $10.00 per tick

Eurex:

• DAX Futures (FDAX): €25.00 per tick
• EURO STOXX 50 Index Futures (FESX): €10.00 per tick

Tick values and sizes may change over time, e.g. the tick size of FDAX was changed from 0.5 to 1.0 index points in 2020.

For fixed-income products on some futures markets, prices are often quoted in fractional units and may need to be converted to decimals before applying the tick value.

Futures exchanges typically list contract specifications on their websites, detailing tick size, tick value, expiration dates, and other key attributes.

However, even major exchanges like CME do not always make tick values easily accessible in a systematic way. One approach is to use CME's security definitions data, where the tick value can often be inferred from the following fields:

• tag 207-SecurityExchange
• tag 969-MinPriceIncrement
• tag 1147-UnitofMeasureQty
• tag 9787-DisplayFactor

This method does not always yield an accurate result and many corner cases exist. For a more detailed walkthrough, see our guide on tick sizes and values.