Treasury Futures Explained: A Plain-English Guide for Day Traders (2026)

Most day traders learn the index futures first and never look further. That is a shame, because Treasury futures explained properly are some of the deepest, most orderly markets a retail trader can access. They are contracts on U.S. government debt, and they move on interest rates rather than on the mood of a single stock index.

The catch is that Treasury futures have their own vocabulary. Prices are quoted in thirty-seconds of a point, not decimals. There are several contracts across the yield curve, each with a different tick value and a different personality. If you jump in without understanding those specs, a position that feels small can cost more than you expected.

In this guide we will keep it plain. We will cover what Treasury futures are, the specs and tick values for the main contracts, when they actually move during the day, and what a simulated funded account does and does not change about trading them.

Key Takeaways

• Treasury futures are contracts on government debt. They track note and bond prices, which move opposite to interest rates.
• Each contract represents 100,000 dollars of face value. The two-year and three-year notes are the exception at 200,000 dollars.
• Tick values differ across the curve. The 10-year note moves in 15.625-dollar ticks, the 30-year bond in 31.25-dollar ticks.
• They trade nearly 23 hours a day. The active window for U.S. traders is the morning, around data and auctions.
• In a simulated account the data is real, the delivery is not. No bonds change hands, so learn the mechanics as a live-ready skill.

Table of Contents

• What Treasury Futures Actually Are
• Contract Specs and Tick Values
• Session Times and When They Move
• Trading Treasury Futures in a Funded Account
• The TradeFundrr Standard

What Treasury Futures Actually Are

Treasury futures are standardized, exchange-traded contracts on U.S. government debt, listed on CME Group's Chicago Board of Trade. Each one lets you take a position on the price of Treasury notes or bonds without owning them. When you buy a contract you profit if prices rise; when you sell short you profit if they fall.

The reason these markets matter is that they are enormous and deeply liquid. Treasury futures are how banks, funds, and dealers hedge interest-rate exposure, so the order books are thick and the spreads are tight. CME Group's basics of U.S. Treasury futures is a good primer on how the family of contracts fits together.

Price and Yield Move in Opposite Directions

The single most important idea in Treasury futures is that price and yield move opposite to each other. A Treasury note pays a fixed coupon, so when market interest rates rise, that fixed coupon is worth relatively less and the price falls. When rates fall, the price rises. If you expect the Federal Reserve to cut rates, you are, in effect, expecting Treasury futures prices to rise.

Longer-dated contracts react more strongly to a given change in yield than shorter-dated ones. A quarter-point shift in expectations barely nudges the two-year note but can move the 30-year bond sharply. That sensitivity is called duration, and it is why the same headline can produce a small candle on one contract and a large one on another.

The Family of Contracts

There is not one Treasury future, there are several, spread across the maturity curve. The main day-trading contracts are the two-year note (ZT), the five-year note (ZF), the 10-year note (ZN), the classic 30-year bond (ZB), and the Ultra Bond (UB). There is also an Ultra 10-year (TN) that sits between ZN and ZB in duration. Each targets a different part of the curve and behaves a little differently.

Contract Specs and Tick Values

The specs are where Treasury futures explained becomes practical. Every contract except the two-year and three-year notes carries 100,000 dollars of face value, and prices are quoted in points and fractions of a point. What changes from contract to contract is how small the minimum move is and what that move is worth in dollars.

Here is the part that trips people up: Treasury futures are priced in thirty-seconds of a point, not in decimals. A full point on a 100,000-dollar contract is worth 1,000 dollars, so one thirty-second is worth 31.25 dollars. Some contracts trade in even finer increments than a full thirty-second. The official 10-year note contract specs and the 30-year bond contract specs from CME Group lay out the exact minimum increments.

Specifications per CME Group. A full one-point move equals $2,000 on the two-year note and $1,000 on the other contracts.

Why Tick Value Is a Risk Setting, Not Trivia

Tick value is really a risk dial. On the 10-year note, ten ticks against you costs 156.25 dollars per contract. On the 30-year bond, the same ten ticks costs 312.50 dollars. If you are trading inside a daily loss limit, the contract you choose quietly sets how many ticks of room you have before you are done for the day. A newer trader is often better served by the smaller tick value of ZF or ZN than by reaching for the bigger swings in ZB or UB.

If even the standard contracts feel large, CME Group also lists Micro Treasury Yield futures, which track a yield directly at a much smaller dollar-per-move. They are a different instrument, quoted in yield rather than price, but worth knowing about if you want smaller size while you learn.

Session Times and When They Move

Treasury futures trade on CME Globex nearly around the clock, Sunday through Friday, from 5:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central Time, with a one-hour maintenance break each afternoon. That is close to 23 hours of trading a day, but the hours are not equal in quality.

The liquidity and the meaningful moves cluster in the U.S. morning. That is when scheduled economic data lands, when the Federal Reserve speaks, and when the Treasury runs its auctions. A quiet overnight session can turn into a fast market the instant a jobs report or an inflation print crosses the wire. If you want a fuller picture of how session structure works across futures, our guide on futures session times covers the pattern.

Data and Auctions Set the Tone

Treasury futures are, at heart, a market that prices expectations for interest rates, so they react to anything that changes those expectations. Payrolls, the consumer price index, and Fed policy statements are the big ones. Because these are scheduled, most funded programs restrict or lock out trading around high-impact news, and that rule applies squarely to Treasuries. Plan your session around the calendar rather than being surprised by it.

Rolling Between Contracts

Treasury futures expire quarterly, in March, June, September, and December. Volume migrates from the expiring contract to the next one during a roll period a couple of weeks before expiration. If you find yourself trading a contract with thinning volume, you are probably in the old month and should roll to the front month. Our explainer on futures contract rollover walks through how to do that cleanly.

Trading Treasury Futures in a Funded Account

In a TradeFundrr funded futures account the market data is real and the execution is simulated. You read genuine Treasury futures prices and depth, so every lesson about tick value, duration, and session timing transfers directly. What does not happen is a real trade against a real counterparty, and that distinction matters more with Treasuries than with most instruments.

Here is the damaging admission most content skips. Treasury futures are physically deliverable. In live trading, a position held to expiration can obligate you to deliver or receive actual securities, which is exactly why day traders never hold to delivery and always roll or close first. In a simulated account no real transaction is executed, so no delivery ever occurs. The platform settles your position under its own written rules. Understanding delivery is still a live-ready skill, and simulation is the sensible place to build the habit of respecting expiration dates.

Sizing to the Rules

TradeFundrr's futures programs run on simulated accounts of up to 100,000 dollars. A 100,000-dollar account carries a 2,000-dollar daily loss limit and a 6,000-dollar maximum drawdown, and there is a maximum risk per position of 0.50 percent. Put the tick values next to those numbers and the discipline writes itself: a handful of ZB contracts can eat a meaningful slice of a daily loss limit in a fast market, so position size has to respect the contract you chose.

The programs also carry a 30 percent consistency requirement and a 10-day minimum of active trading days. Both push toward steady, repeatable trades rather than one oversized swing on an auction result. Treasuries reward that temperament, because their cleaner trends tend to develop over a morning rather than in a single tick.

The TradeFundrr Standard

TradeFundrr is a structured, simulated environment with rules written down before you start. Treasury futures are a good fit for that structure because they reward patience and punish sloppiness in equal measure. The specs are not decoration; they are the difference between a controlled loss and a surprising one.

Nobody passes an evaluation because they memorized that ZN ticks in 15.625-dollar increments. Plenty of traders fail one because they sized a 30-year bond position as if it were a 10-year note and blew through a daily loss limit on a single data release. Knowing the specs is how you avoid being that trader.

Our futures programs use an 80/20 profit split on live funded accounts, with daily payouts available and payout caps that step up over time. A payout is decided by the written rules and nothing else. If you follow them and meet the requirements, you are eligible. The only thing that stops a payout is a rule that was broken, and every one of those rules is published in advance. For related reading, see our guides on micro futures versus e-mini futures and initial versus maintenance margin in futures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Treasury futures?

Treasury futures are exchange-traded contracts on U.S. government debt, traded on CME Group's CBOT. Each contract represents a standardized face amount of Treasury notes or bonds, most commonly 100,000 dollars, and lets a trader take a position on interest-rate-sensitive prices without buying the underlying securities.

What is the tick value of ZN, the 10-year Treasury note future?

The 10-year note future (ZN) has a minimum price move of one half of one thirty-second of a point, which is worth 15.625 dollars per contract. A full one-point move equals 1,000 dollars per contract because the contract represents 100,000 dollars of face value.

When do Treasury futures trade?

They trade on CME Globex nearly around the clock, Sunday through Friday, from 5:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central Time, with a one-hour break each afternoon. The most active window for U.S. traders is the morning, especially around economic data releases and Treasury auctions.

Why do Treasury futures prices move opposite to interest rates?

They track the price of fixed-coupon debt, and bond prices fall when yields rise and rise when yields fall. When the market expects higher rates, Treasury futures prices tend to drop; when it expects lower rates, they tend to climb. Longer-dated contracts move more per basis point than shorter-dated ones.

Can I trade Treasury futures in a TradeFundrr funded account?

TradeFundrr offers simulated futures programs of up to 100,000 dollars that run on real market data. Whether a specific Treasury contract is enabled, and its position limits, are set in your written account rules, so confirm the instrument list for your program before you trade it.

Do I take delivery of bonds if I hold a Treasury future to expiration?

In live trading, Treasury futures are physically deliverable, so a held position at expiration can result in delivery of actual securities, which is why day traders roll or close before then. In a simulated funded account no real trade is executed, so no delivery occurs and the platform settles the position under its own written rules.

Which Treasury future is best for a beginner?

There is no single best contract, but many newer traders start with the 10-year note (ZN) or 5-year note (ZF) because they are liquid and carry smaller per-tick values than the 30-year bond (ZB) or Ultra Bond (UB). A smaller tick value means each adverse move costs less, which suits learning within a tight daily loss limit.

What is the difference between ZB and UB Treasury futures?

ZB is the classic 30-year bond future, satisfied by deliverable bonds with at least 15 years to maturity. UB, the Ultra Bond, requires deliverable bonds with at least 25 years to maturity, giving it a longer duration. UB therefore moves more per basis point of yield change and tends to be the more volatile of the two.