Tradestation – Futures contract tickers

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Simpler Trading Team

2 min read

Enter the correct symbol / futures contract month in Tradestation

Futures Tickers 

Use the following convention to for futures contracts.
Base symbol + letter for the next contract month + last 2 digits of the year.  

In the case of the E-Mini S&P 500 for March 2020, the ticker symbol would be:
ESH20

 

Step 1 – Find the base symbol

 
Futures base symbols can be found on Tradestation’s help site here: http://help.tradestation.com/ 

 

 

Step 2 – Determine the Code for the next contract delivery month

F – January
G – February
H – March
J – April
K – May
M – June
N – July
Q – August
U – September
V – October
X – November
Z – December

 

Step 3 – Enter the last 2 digits of the year

If the current year is 2020, then use 20.  
 
 
 
 

Examples:

ES is the base symbol for the E-Mini SP 500.
However, typing just ES in Tradestation will call a stock with the symbol ES, not the E-Mini S&P 500.
 
To get the E-Mini S&P 500 use:
 
Base symbol for E-Mini S&P 500 = ES
Next month contract code = H
Last 2 digits of the year 2020 = 20

Therefore the Ticker for the March 2020 E-Mini contract is:  ESH20

 
Here is the E-Mini Nasdaq 100 March 2020 futures contract:
NQH20

In the above example:  
The base symbol for E-Mini Nasdaq 100 = NQ
The code for the March contract = H
The last 2 digits of the year = 20