A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell something at a set price on a set date in the future.

The "something" can be the S&P 500, gold, crude oil, natural gas, or the euro. Almost every major financial market on earth has a futures contract attached to it.

Here is what matters for you as a trader: you don't actually take delivery of anything. You open a position, the price moves, you close it before the contract expires, and your profit or loss settles in cash.

If the price went your way, you keep the difference. If it didn't, you lose the difference. That is the whole concept.

Futures contracts are standardized products listed on regulated exchanges: the CME, the CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX (all part of CME Group). Every contract has a defined size, a defined tick value, and a defined expiration date.

CFDs are bilateral instruments. The contract terms, the pricing, and the spread all come from the broker.

A futures contract is the same instrument no matter where you trade it. A single E-mini S&P contract has identical specifications everywhere, and the price quoted on the CME is the price quoted everywhere. That standardization is the reason institutional traders use futures. Same instrument, same specs, same rules.

Upcomers Futures launches with around 50 of the most liquid CME Group contracts, across eight groups. Here is the full lineup at launch.

Thirteen of these are Micro or smaller contracts (MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K, MGC, SIL, MHG, MCL, M6E, M6A, M6B, MBT, and MET). A Micro is a smaller version of its full-size parent. Most are one-tenth the size (MES is 1/10 of ES, MGC is 1/10 of GC, MCL is 1/10 of CL), so you get the same product and the same price action with one-tenth the dollar exposure per contract. Micros let you learn the markets and size risk finely without putting full institutional size on the table.

Contracts. In futures you don't trade in lots or shares, you trade in contracts. One E-mini S&P contract represents $50 multiplied by the current index value. So if the S&P trades at 5,000, one contract represents $250,000 of market exposure. You don't pay $250,000 to open it. You post margin, which is much less. Your profit and loss are calculated on the full exposure.

Tick value. A tick is the smallest price move a contract can make. For the E-mini S&P, one tick equals 0.25 index points, which equals $12.50 per contract. So if your trade moves four ticks in your favor, you make $50 per contract.

These two ideas explain almost everything about how futures work. We have a full guide called Tick size and tick value explained that walks through every instrument with concrete examples.

You keep 99%. A 99% profit split on every payout, so you keep 99 cents of every dollar you make.

You pay once. You buy your evaluation (or an instant funding account), you meet the conditions, and you trade. It is a one-time account fee. No monthly subscription and no recurring platform or data fees.

You get the same standard. The same Dynamic Risk Shield™ and the same payout infrastructure that already power Upcomers, now applied to CME futures.

Upcomers Futures accounts are simulated (sim-funded). You trade a funded balance on DXtrade against live market prices, and you follow a clear set of risk rules. You are not putting your own capital into the market.

When you meet the payout conditions, the profit you make is paid to you in real money, and you keep 99% of it. In short: real markets, real payouts, on a simulated account that keeps your downside controlled.

Upcomers Futures launches with three programs. Pick the one that fits how you trade.

Thunderbolt Classic. Our most popular path, built for day traders. A single evaluation phase (one step) with a 6% profit target ($3,000 on a $50,000 account) and a one-day pass, so you can qualify in as little as one trading day. Daily drawdown limit is 3% in the challenge and 2% once funded ($1,500 and $1,000 on a $50,000 account), resetting at 5:00 PM ET. Funded accounts up to $400,000.

Thunderbolt Legacy. The same one-step structure, built for swing traders who hold overnight and over the weekend. Same 6% profit target ($3,000 on a $50,000 account), with real-time trailing drawdown and a 3% daily drawdown limit ($1,500 on a $50,000 account). Minimum of 5 trading days to pass. Funded accounts up to $400,000.

Vanguard. Instant funding, no evaluation. You start on a funded account from day one, with a 2% daily drawdown limit ($1,000 on a $50,000 account). Minimum of 5 trading days before you can request a payout, and a trading day only counts toward that minimum if you make at least 0.5% profit that day ($250 on a $50,000 account). Funded accounts up to $300,000.

All three pay a 99% profit split. Thunderbolt Classic and Thunderbolt Legacy also include a 15% Challenge Profit Share: grow your funded account enough with a clean payout record and you earn a bonus of 15% of your challenge-phase profit. Vanguard has no challenge phase, so this does not apply to it. For the full breakdown, read How to choose your futures program.

Upcomers Futures runs on DXtrade in your web browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install.

DXtrade is built for futures. It gives you a native order ladder (Depth of Market), real-time market depth (Level II, up to 10 price levels a side, the standard CME Globex depth), and the core order types: Market, Limit, Stop, and Stop Limit.

If you have used Tradovate, NinjaTrader, or Sierra Chart, the transition takes minutes. If you are new to futures, our DXtrade guides walk you through login, placing your first order, and reading the ladder step by step.

The full rules live in their own articles, but here is what to expect on every futures account.

Trailing drawdown. Your account has a trailing maximum drawdown (the Dynamic Risk Shield™). It follows your equity higher in real time as you make profit, setting the floor you must stay above. Once your account grows by the trailing percentage (4%, or $4,000 on a $100,000 account, on Thunderbolt Classic and Thunderbolt Legacy; 3%, or $3,000, on Vanguard), the Dynamic Risk Shield locks permanently at your initial balance. From that point it is static and no longer moves, so it never chases your profit.

Daily reset at 5:00 PM ET. On futures, the trading day and the daily drawdown reset at 5:00 PM ET, the futures-industry standard, not at midnight UTC. Every program carries a daily drawdown limit, including Thunderbolt Legacy.

Max trade loss. No single open trade may lose more than 1.5% of your account size on Thunderbolt Classic and Vanguard, or 2% on Thunderbolt Legacy. On a $100,000 account, that is $1,500 on any one trade on Classic or Vanguard, and $2,000 on Legacy. This is a hard rule. Breaching it closes your account automatically, even if your overall balance is still in profit. Positions in the same instrument and the same direction are counted together as one trade.

For the exact numbers on each program, see the rules article for your product.

New to futures? Read Mini vs micro contracts for the building blocks.

Want to know how price translates into dollars? Read Tick size and tick value explained.

Ready to make your first calculation? See How to calculate P&L on futures.

Ready to pick a program? Read How to choose your futures program.

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