Trading Futures Like ES, NQ, MES, MNQ, and GC

You trade simulated futures on the Trade terminal at /trade, using the same live, real time market data that powers the rest of the platform. Supported symbols include ES and NQ, the micros MES and MNQ, and GC for gold.

Where Futures Trade

The Trade terminal is your main screen for futures. It gives you live charts, an order ticket, open positions with live profit and loss, a watchlist, and your account info in one place. You can find and add futures symbols from your watchlist or from Markets, then pull them up on the chart to trade.

If you also want to build multi leg options strategies on the same live data, those live on the Options screen.

Placing a Futures Order

The order ticket supports three order types:

• A market order fills immediately at the current price.
• A limit order fills only at a price you choose or better.
• A stop order turns into a market order once your trigger price is hit.

After you are in a position, you can attach Take Profit and Stop Loss brackets from the close dialog to auto exit at a chosen percent, dollar, or price level. That lets you define your exit before the market moves against you.

Contract Limits and Account Rules

How many contracts you can hold, along with your daily loss limit, maximum drawdown, maximum position hold time, and allocation risk per position, all vary by plan. These are the guardrails that keep a challenge account alive, so it helps to know them before you size a futures trade. You can see the exact figures for your plan on the Pricing page and inside your own Accounts. Breaching a hard rule can fail or liquidate an account, and the full rulebook is in the Trading Rules.

Charts and Market Hours

Futures move outside regular stock hours, and the platform builds overnight and 24/5 candles for supported symbols, so your chart should reflect the current session. Outside market hours a chart may show the last session. If a chart looks blank or stale, it is almost always a temporary data or connection issue: switch symbols and back, refresh the page, and check the market data status.

Start on the Trade terminal whenever you want to place a futures order, and email [email protected] if you have a question about your specific account.