# Micros vs minis: sizing a 50K account

> A micro contract is one tenth of a mini: MES moves $1.25 per tick against $12.50 for ES. On a 50K account with a $2,000 Max Loss Limit, that is the difference between a stop costing 4% of your room and one costing 0.4%. Size from the room, and count micros as tenths against the position limit.

By StarTrading Team · Published 2026-09-09 · Updated 2026-09-24 · Source: https://startrading.io/blog/micros-vs-minis-position-sizing

A micro contract is one tenth of a mini: MES moves $1.25 per tick against $12.50 for ES. On a 50K account with a $2,000 Max Loss Limit, that is the difference between a stop costing 4% of your room and one costing 0.4%. Size from the room, and count micros as tenths against the position limit.

## Tick values, the only table you need

| Contract | Tick | Value per tick | Micro | Value per tick |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ES (S&P 500) | 0.25 pt | $12.50 | MES | $1.25 |
| NQ (Nasdaq 100) | 0.25 pt | $5.00 | MNQ | $0.50 |
| CL (crude oil) | $0.01 | $10.00 | MCL | $1.00 |
| GC (gold) | $0.10 | $10.00 | MGC | $1.00 |

Every micro is one tenth of its mini, tick for tick. A 10-tick stop on ES costs $125 per contract; the same stop on MES costs $12.50. The market is identical, the chart is identical, only the multiplier changes. Specifications are published by the exchange and can change; check the contract page before trading a product for the first time.

## The room is the account

A [50K account](https://startrading.io/pricing) starts with a [Max Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/max-loss-limit) $2,000 below the balance and, on a Cycle, a [Daily Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/daily-loss-limit) of $1,200. The nominal $50,000 never enters a sizing decision. What matters is the distance to the limit, which starts at $2,000 and shrinks with every losing day because the limit trails.

A workable rule: risk at most 10% of the current room on one trade, and at most half the daily limit in one day. On a fresh 50K that gives $200 per trade and $600 per day. Ten losing trades in a row at full risk, spread over at least three days, would be needed to fail the account. If your last five days cost you $800, the room is $1,200 and the per-trade risk drops to $120. The rule does the sizing for you when you are losing, which is exactly when you are least able to do it yourself.

## From risk to contracts

Contracts = risk per trade ÷ (stop in ticks × tick value). With $200 of risk:

| Stop | ES | MES | NQ | MNQ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 8 ticks | 2 | 20 | 5 | 50 |
| 12 ticks | 1 | 13 | 3 | 33 |
| 20 ticks | 0 | 8 | 2 | 20 |

Two things stand out. First, a 20-tick ES stop is not affordable at all on a fresh 50K with a 10% rule: one contract would risk $250. Second, micros let you keep the stop the market needs instead of shrinking it to fit the contract. A trader who uses an 8-tick ES stop because 12 ticks “costs too much” is not managing risk; they are buying more stop-outs.

Micros also count as tenths against the [position limit](https://startrading.io/rules/scaling): a 50K allows 4 minis, so 40 micros, or 2 minis and 20 micros. The limit applies to the total across products, ES and NQ together.

Put it into practice on a Clear account

$136One-time fee, no subscription, no time limit.

Profit target

$3,000

Max Loss Limit

$2,000

[Start the 50K Clear evaluation](https://startrading.io/pricing?f=clear&s=50k&p=rithmic)[About Clear accounts](https://startrading.io/accounts/clear)

## Scaling in and the daily budget

A $600 daily budget with $200 per trade is three full losses. Many traders prefer four or five smaller attempts early in the session and one larger position once the day is green. That works with micros: start with 8 MES and add 8 more only after the first target is hit, so that a stop on the full 16 costs no more than the profit already locked. On minis, the first step would already be the whole budget.

The [Daily Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/daily-loss-limit) is soft: hitting it closes positions and pauses the account until the next session, it does not fail the account. Your own daily stop should be reached first, every time. If the platform’s limit is what stops you, the plan was wrong, and that inversion is the most common one in [why most evaluations fail](https://startrading.io/blog/why-most-evaluations-fail).

## Commissions and the micro tax

Micros cost more in commission per dollar of exposure: ten MES round trips cost more than one ES round trip on every platform. On a 50K account that trades a few times a day the difference is a few dollars per day, which is nothing next to one oversized loss. Once your per-trade risk exceeds ten micros’ worth, switch to a mini and add micros for fine-tuning, for example 1 ES plus 4 MES for 1.4 contracts of exposure.

## Sizing across several accounts

The 10% rule applies to each account separately, but the trader does not. If you run the same setup on two 50K accounts, one 8 MES entry on each is 16 MES of real exposure and $400 of real risk, even though each account sees $200. Copy trading between your own accounts is allowed within the rules, and the [position limit](https://startrading.io/rules/scaling) is still enforced per account.

The safe habit is to size from your total room across accounts, not per account. [Bots, copy trading and multiple accounts](https://startrading.io/blog/bots-copy-trading-and-multiple-accounts) covers what is permitted and where the limits sit. Accounts remain simulated until the Live stage and losses on futures can be substantial.

## Which 50K account fits this approach

The sizing is the same on every type; the rules around it differ. A [Clear 50K](https://startrading.io/accounts/clear) has no consistency rule and no buffer once funded, which suits a trader who prefers a few larger days. A [Cycle 50K](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle) adds a buffer and a 40% consistency rule once funded, which suits a trader who produces many similar days. The full parameters of the four 50K accounts are on the [50K page](https://startrading.io/accounts/50k).

## Sources

-   CME Group, [E-mini S&P 500 contract specifications](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/equities/sp/e-mini-sp500.contractSpecs.html) and [Micro E-mini S&P 500 contract specifications](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/equities/sp/micro-e-mini-sp-500.contractSpecs.html): tick sizes and values.
-   CME Group, [Crude oil](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude.contractSpecs.html) and [Gold](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/metals/precious/gold.contractSpecs.html) contract specifications.
-   Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [customer advisories on the risks of leveraged futures trading](https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/index.htm).

## Questions on this topic

### How do micros count against the position limit?

Ten micros equal one mini. A 50K account allows 4 minis, so 40 micros, or any mix such as 2 minis and 20 micros. The limit applies across all products at the same time.

### Is a micro contract less risky than a mini?

Per contract, yes: one tenth of the dollar movement. Per position, only if you hold fewer than ten of them. Twenty MES carry exactly the risk of two ES with slightly higher commissions per unit of exposure.

### Should a beginner start on micros?

Yes. Micros let you keep the same stop distance in ticks while risking a tenth of the money, which is the only way to learn a market without spending the whole drawdown on the tuition.