write.as

In futures trading, there are fees associated with each trade you make. There are fees charged by the exchange, and the NFA, and often a commission charged by the broker.

Different brokers will have different commission structures. Some charge more, some charge less, some even have zero-commission account options available.

Rithmic fee with Nasdaq, Dow, Russell

A popular choice is a Rithmic account with Apex Trader Funding (ATF).

(Rithmic fees can be found here. Note, for ATF Tradovate accounts, there is zero commission, so on many instruments the total trade fee is significantly lower than Rithmic, greatly improving the R:R, as well as leading to significant savings on every trade. Tradovate fees can be found here. For a comparison of Rithmic and Tradovate fees, see here.)

With an ATF Rithmic account, using the Apex Sniper system on e-mini markets such as /NQ, /YM, and /RTY, the risk/reward (R:R) is 2.66:1. As in, the risk on each trade is 2.66 times the potential profit.

But on their corresponding micros (/MNQ, /MYM, /M2K), that jumps to 3.31:1.

Why? How?

Answer: The trade fees on micro contracts are just that much greater, as a percentage of the tick value. That being said, because the trade fee is flat⁠—meaning it's the same amount for each contract on each trade, regardless of how much is lost or won⁠—the impact of the fee diminishes as your profit target gets larger.

But on a tiny-size scalp trade system like Sniper, where the profit target is less than 10 ticks, the trade fee takes a more significant portion of the total profit on a trade, so it's more impactful.

That's where it really gets people. They're afraid of larger dollar amounts, so they're trading micro contracts, not realizing that for every loss, they're having to win nearly 3.5 trades to make up for a loss instead of just over 2.5 (i.e. almost an entire extra trade is needed than if they were simply trading mini contracts instead of the micros).

Restated: With MNQ, MYM, and M2K, you need to win 3.31 trades to make up for a loss. With NQ, YM, and RTY, you only need 2.66 wins.

Rithmic fee with S&P 500

For /ES, it's a bit better because the tick value is almost 3 times the value of those other markets, but the trade fee is the same. So the R:R on ES is 2.59:1. On /MES it's 2.88:1, just over 11% worse than the corresponding mini.

So take note, the R:R with MES is not anywhere close to the R:R of the other US index micros. So if you absolutely have to trade Sniper with micro contracts, it is best to do with MES or another market that has a large tick-value-to-trade-fee ratio.

A list of available instruments and their corresponding tick values and fees with ATF Rithmic and ATF Tradovate can be found here. (Note again, there is zero commission with Tradovate, so the trade fee is significantly lower on many instruments, greatly improving the R:R, as well as leading to significant savings on every trade.)

What should I do?

Sniper

The recommendation for trading Sniper is to ensure you have a trading account size large enough to accommodate exclusively trading mini contracts for your chosen instrument(s). That way you can take advantage of the more favorable R:R.

An ATF 50k account ($2500 trailing threshold) is widely considered enough to trade 1 mini contract. However, you will want to be discerning in your trade setups, especially if you choose to trade ES, as the risk for each ES trade is double the amount of the risk as for the other US indexes ($217 vs. $109).

If you wish to be more conservative, an ATF 150k account ($5000 trailing threshold) is the next best value in terms of trailing drawdown threshold versus profit target, as well as cost. This will definitely be sufficient to safely trade 1 mini contract, but will take a greater number of trades to reach the higher profit goal and pass the evaluation. (Remember, there is no limit for how long you can take to pass an evaluation account. Take as long as you need.)

Simplicity

Again, for a wider trade (i.e. greater profit target and stop-loss), the trade fee isn't so much of an issue. For example, when trading Simplicity—where stops and profit targets are generally at least 40-60 ticks or more—the recommendation is actually to trade micros.

This is because with such a large number of ticks at risk on each trade, the potential loss with a mini contract is quite significant for a smaller account.

In addition, with a trailing drawdown threshold, a wider trade leaves a greater possibility to fall even closer to the knockout threshold than just with a full loss on a trade. (As in, the trade goes in your favor, and then reverses, and you end up exiting below the peak profit that price reached during the trade. See “How Does The Trailing Threshold Work? Master Course” for detail.)

Here again, to maintain proper risk management, you will want to have an account size large enough to safely trade with stops that wide. Trading with micro contracts (resulting in a lower value per tick) is a good way to accomplish this.