Cross-Contract Copying: Trade NQ on Leader, MNQ on Follower

Cross-contract copying solves one of the most common problems in trade copying: your leader trades full-size contracts like NQ or ES, but your follower account is too small to handle the dollar exposure of a full-size contract. With cross-contract copying enabled, MimikTrader automatically swaps the contract symbol when placing follower orders, converting NQ to MNQ, ES to MES, and so on.

Supported Contract Pairs

MimikTrader supports cross-contract conversion for all major CME futures products that have mini/micro equivalents. The conversion preserves the month and year code from the leader's symbol — so if the leader trades NQM6, the follower receives MNQM6.

• ES ↔ MES — E-mini S&P 500 to Micro E-mini S&P 500. Point value ratio: $50 vs $5 (10:1).
• NQ ↔ MNQ — E-mini NASDAQ-100 to Micro E-mini NASDAQ-100. Point value ratio: $20 vs $2 (10:1).
• YM ↔ MYM — E-mini Dow to Micro E-mini Dow. Point value ratio: $5 vs $0.50 (10:1).
• RTY ↔ M2K — E-mini Russell 2000 to Micro E-mini Russell 2000. Point value ratio: $50 vs $5 (10:1).
• CL ↔ MCL — Crude Oil to Micro Crude Oil. Point value ratio: $1,000 vs $100 (10:1).
• GC ↔ MGC — Gold to Micro Gold. Point value ratio: $100 vs $10 (10:1).

How It Works

When cross-contract copying is enabled on a follower account, the symbol swap happens during the order placement phase, after risk checks have passed. Here is the sequence:

• The leader fills on NQM6 (full-size NASDAQ-100, June contract).
• MimikTrader runs the normal risk evaluation using the leader's contract and quantity.
• The risk check passes. MimikTrader calculates the follower's quantity using the follower's sizing multiplier.
• Before placing the broker order, MimikTrader checks the follower's cross-contract preference. If set to "MICRO," it swaps NQM6 → MNQM6.
• The follower's order is placed on MNQM6 at the calculated quantity.

The conversion only applies to the symbol. The quantity is determined independently by the sizing multiplier and is not automatically multiplied by 10. If you want the follower to have equivalent dollar exposure, you need to set the multiplier accordingly.

Configuration

Cross-contract copying is configured per follower account on the Risk Management page. Two settings control the behavior:

• Cross-Contract: Enable or disable cross-contract conversion for this follower. When disabled (the default), the follower trades the same contract as the leader.
• Cross-Contract Preference: Choose "MICRO" to convert full-size to micro contracts, or "MINI" to convert micro contracts to full-size. Most users will select "MICRO."

When the preference is set to "MICRO" and the leader is already trading a micro contract (like MNQ), no swap occurs — the follower trades the same micro contract. The swap only happens when there is a difference between the leader's contract type and the follower's preference.

Use Cases for Smaller Accounts

Cross-contract copying is particularly valuable in these scenarios:

Prop Firm Evaluations

Many traders have a funded account with one prop firm trading full-size contracts, while simultaneously running evaluations on smaller accounts where full-size contracts would blow through the drawdown limit on a single bad trade. Cross-contract copying lets you run the same strategy on the evaluation account with micro contracts, maintaining the same trade entries and exits at a fraction of the dollar risk.

Personal Accounts

If your personal trading account has a $10,000 balance and your leader account trades NQ (where a single point move is $20 per contract), the risk per trade may be too large. Switching the follower to MNQ ($2 per point) reduces the risk by 10x while keeping the same entry and exit signals.

Scaling Across Multiple Firms

When you have accounts across multiple prop firms with different account sizes and drawdown limits, cross-contract copying combined with each follower's own sizing multiplier lets you tailor the exposure on each follower independently while following a single leader strategy.

Contracts Without Micro Equivalents

Not all futures contracts have micro equivalents. If the leader trades a contract that has no configured pair (such as Natural Gas NG, Silver SI, or Treasury products ZB/ZN/ZF), the cross-contract swap is skipped and the follower trades the same contract as the leader. A warning is logged to help you identify when this occurs.