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FUTURES, DECODED
All those letters and numbers? Here's the decoder.
NQZ26. Ticks. Points. MNQ. Drawdown. Futures can look like a secret code built to keep newcomers out. The real list is short once someone translates it, so that's what this page does.
● READING A FUTURES SYMBOL
NQ
Z
26
WHAT
Nasdaq-100
WHEN
December
YEAR
2026
Market + month + year. Every futures symbol follows this pattern.
THE MONTH CODES
12 letters, 12 months.
The letters look random because they skip anything that could be confused with something else. Stock index futures like NQ and ES only use the 4 highlighted ones: H, M, U and Z.
F
Jan
G
Feb
H
Mar
J
Apr
K
May
M
Jun
N
Jul
Q
Aug
U
Sep
V
Oct
X
Nov
Z
Dec
THE CHART IN 30 SECONDS
Every candle tells a 4-part story.
Charts look busy, but each candle only answers 4 questions about a slice of time: where price opened, where it closed, how high it went and how low it went.
Green means price closed higher than it opened. Red means it closed lower. Think of it as a receipt for 1 minute, 5 minutes or a full day of trading.
High
The top of the wick
Open to close
The body. Green = closed higher
Low
The bottom of the wick
THE JARGON, TRANSLATED
9 words that unlock every trading video.
Learn these and the Discord, the YouTube breakdowns and the chart talk all start making sense.
Contract
1 pre-order on a market. It's the unit you buy or sell.
📘 Like 1 ticket to a show
Tick
The smallest step price can take. On NQ it's 0.25, worth $5. On ES it's 0.25, worth $12.50.
📘 Like the cents ticking on a gas pump
Point
4 ticks on NQ and ES. 1 NQ point = $20, 1 ES point = $50.
📘 Like a dollar is 4 quarters
Long and short
Long means you profit if price rises. Short means you profit if it falls.
📘 Long buys the pre-order, short sells it first
Mini and micro
Same market, different size. MNQ is 1/10 of NQ, so 1 point = $2.
📘 Like a full pizza vs. 1 slice
Stop loss
An exit you set before you enter, so a bad trade closes automatically.
📘 Like a smoke alarm for your trade
Drawdown
Your account's floor. If your balance touches it, the account is done.
📘 Like the guardrail on a mountain road
Consistency
A cap on how much of your profit goal can come from 1 day.
📘 Like a class graded on every test all semester
Session
The block of hours a market is busiest. For NQ and ES, the main event is 9:30 AM to 4 PM ET.
📘 Like rush hour, when the road is full
HOW BLUSKY KEEPS IT SIMPLE
3 choices, then you trade.
01
Pick a plan and a size
Launch, Propel or Orbit, then an account size. Not sure? The 1-minute plan quiz picks for you.
02
Pick your platform
Trade on Tradovate, our preferred platform partner, or another supported platform. Every rule is listed up front in the plan chooser.
03
Learn live while you trade
Join 10,000+ traders in our Discord for free daily coaching, live market breakdowns and answers to the questions you'd feel silly asking anywhere else.
READY FOR LIFTOFF?
You speak futures now. Time to trade it.
New traders get 50% off their first Launch account with code Welcome26. Better futures start here.