Pine Script NQ Futures Strategy for Prop Firms
NQ and MNQ move fast enough to hit a profit target without overtrading — and fast enough to end an evaluation just as quickly if the script isn't built around that volatility. Here's how to run one that survives it.
NQ vs. MNQ: which one to run on an evaluation
The full-size NQ contract moves $20 × price per point; the micro MNQ moves $2 × price — a tenth of the size for identical price action. For an evaluation, MNQ is almost always the right call: same signal, same entry and exit logic, a fraction of the dollar risk.
| Contract | Tick value | Per-point move | Typical daily range |
|---|---|---|---|
| NQ | $5.00 | $20 × price | 200–400 pts |
| MNQ | $0.50 | $2 × price | 200–400 pts |
On a 50k Apex evaluation with a $2,500 trail, a 100-point adverse move on 1 MNQ costs about $200 — manageable. The same 100 points on 1 NQ costs roughly $2,000, most of the trail on a single trade.
Why NQ is harder than ES on an evaluation
ES moves slower and more predictably. NQ is tech-heavy and reacts violently to macro events — Fed commentary, earnings surprises, and CPI prints can push it well over a hundred points in seconds. On a trailing-drawdown account, that's account-ending territory if the position is on the wrong side.
- Wider average true range: NQ's ATR on a 5-minute chart typically runs 8–15 points — a stop needs to account for that without becoming too wide for sound position sizing
- Gap risk: NQ gaps harder at the open than ES; any overnight exposure on an evaluation account is a real liability
- Session sensitivity: NQ front-runs the cash open by 15–30 minutes — the pre-market window often produces the day's best move, but it's also the most dangerous to fade
Script rules that matter specifically for NQ
1. A hard session filter
NQ after noon ET tends toward low-volume chop. A script trading all day will accumulate afternoon losers that eat into the trail. Restricting to the first 90 minutes of RTH (9:30–11:00 AM ET), with an optional look at the power hour (3:00–3:30 PM), keeps activity in the highest-quality window.
2. An ATR-based stop, not a fixed tick count
Because NQ's volatility swings day to day, a fixed 20-tick stop gets clipped constantly on high-volatility days.
ta.atr(14) multiplied by a factor (typically 0.5–1.0) keeps risk proportional to the day's actual
range instead.
3. A news blackout
Hard-code a blackout window around major releases — at minimum 8:30 AM ET (CPI, NFP, jobless claims) and 2:00 PM ET (FOMC). The script should flatten any open position before the print and hold off re-entry for roughly 15 minutes. If the strategy is automated through CrossTrade, that flatten goes out as an ordinary exit alert, so it reaches the account like any other order.
4. A max daily loss kill switch
Track a running daily loss counter. Once realized-plus-unrealized loss on the day reaches around 40% of the trailing drawdown limit, the strategy stops opening new positions for the rest of the session — non-negotiable on NQ, where a single bad morning trend can otherwise take the whole trail with it.
Sizing MNQ contracts to the evaluation
A workable formula: take roughly a third of the trailing drawdown as a maximum single-day loss budget, divide by the average losing trade in dollars, and that's a rough per-trade contract ceiling.
Worked example on a 50k Apex evaluation ($2,500 trail):
- Daily loss budget: roughly $833
- Average losing trade on 1 MNQ with a 30-tick stop: about $15
- That budget covers well over 50 losing trades in theory — but that's a ceiling, not a target
- In practice: start with 1–3 MNQ contracts, prove the strategy over 5 sessions, then scale from there
VWAP reclaim: the cleanest NQ setup for evaluations
The most reliable NQ eval setup is a VWAP reclaim: price dips below VWAP in the first 30 minutes, then closes
back above it with volume confirmation. In Pine Script that's close[1] < vwap[1],
close > vwap, and barstate.isconfirmed. The long entry fires on the next bar's open,
with a stop below the reclaim candle's low and a target around 1.5–2x the risk. See our
full VWAP strategy guide for the complete build.
Complete MNQ strategy — Pine Script
An original VWAP-reclaim-plus-kill-switch strategy for a 1- or 3-minute MNQ chart, configured for a 50k Apex evaluation ($2,500 trail, kill switch at $1,000).
//@version=5
strategy("MNQ Prop Firm — VWAP Reclaim", overlay = true,
default_qty_type = strategy.fixed, default_qty_value = 1)
// ── inputs ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
dailyLossLimit = input.float(1000.0, "Daily Loss Limit ($)")
atrMult = input.float(0.75, "ATR Stop Multiplier")
rrRatio = input.float(1.5, "Reward:Risk Ratio")
// ── session: RTH only, 9:30–11:00 ET ────────────────────────────────
inSession = not na(time("1", "0930-1100:23456", "America/New_York"))
// ── news blackout: 8:25–9:00 and 13:55–14:30 ET ─────────────────────
newsBlackout = not na(time("1", "0825-0900:23456", "America/New_York")) or
not na(time("1", "1355-1430:23456", "America/New_York"))
// ── daily loss kill switch ───────────────────────────────────────────
isNewSession = ta.change(time("D")) != 0
var float dayOpenEq = na
dayOpenEq := isNewSession ? strategy.equity : dayOpenEq
halted = math.min(0.0, strategy.equity - nz(dayOpenEq, strategy.equity)) <= -dailyLossLimit
// ── VWAP reclaim signal ──────────────────────────────────────────────
vwapVal = ta.vwap(hlc3)
atrVal = ta.atr(14)
volFilter = volume > ta.sma(volume, 20)
longSig = close[1] < vwapVal[1] and close > vwapVal and barstate.isconfirmed and volFilter
shortSig = close[1] > vwapVal[1] and close < vwapVal and barstate.isconfirmed and volFilter
canTrade = inSession and not halted and not newsBlackout and strategy.position_size == 0
if longSig and canTrade
stopDist = atrMult * atrVal
strategy.entry("L", strategy.long)
strategy.exit("L-x", "L", profit = stopDist * rrRatio / syminfo.mintick,
loss = stopDist / syminfo.mintick)
if shortSig and canTrade
stopDist = atrMult * atrVal
strategy.entry("S", strategy.short)
strategy.exit("S-x", "S", profit = stopDist * rrRatio / syminfo.mintick,
loss = stopDist / syminfo.mintick)
// ── EOD flatten ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
eodFlat = not na(time("1", "1529-1531:23456", "America/New_York"))
fridayFlat = dayofweek == dayofweek.friday and not na(time("1", "1459-1501:6", "America/New_York"))
if (eodFlat or fridayFlat) and strategy.position_size != 0
strategy.close_all("EOD")Backtesting NQ strategies against evaluation rules
Add these constraints to any TradingView backtest before trusting the result:
- Track a rolling equity peak and flag any bar where drawdown from that peak exceeds the eval limit
- Count distinct trading days — bars where at least one trade fired — to confirm the strategy clears minimums
- Apply the session filter to the backtest itself, not just live trading
A strategy that looks strong on a full-session backtest can still fail an evaluation because it churns through the afternoon chop. Filter to RTH and the intended session window before evaluating any result.