Interactive Brokers continues to be among the best futures brokers out there, considered the best by many. With their excellent desktop trading platform and great margin rates, Interactive Brokers comes with a lot of value, even given its higher price ticket. The main benefit of buying and selling futures contracts is liquidity. The futures market provides a high liquidity level for all major futures contracts like the E-Mini ES or NQ.

There are some companies that charge very little while other companies charge more than average so it’s important that you find one that suits your needs and budget. There are many available https://trading-market.org/s which can help you trade in the commodities market. If you have decided to invest in the commodities market, then you should know the features of an awesome futures trading broker so that you can easily invest in these markets. This year alone, NinjaTrader will have more than 1,500 new educational videos published with a focus on providing traders with advanced strategies for stock market trading. Discounting may be considered legal if it is offered as a promotional benefit to customers who have saved money on their trading account. The broker must disclose this information clearly in its online marketing materials or literature that is provided to prospective clients.

Futures

Chat support is naturally that bit quicker, typically replying in less than one minute. Younger traders will appreciate the firms up-to-date Twitter and Facebook pages. If you value great customer support team, CMC Markets has your back. The team is accessible through a wide variety of options including 24 hour phone support, email, live chat and a detailed FAQs section. The firm’s highlights include their wide product range, advanced order types, competitive fees, and customer service. None-the-less, CMC Markets is highly-regarded in the U.K, and is a leader for low cost trading.

Futures are financial instruments that allow traders to speculate on whether prices will rise or fall in the future. Nowadays, it is very important for the investors to choose a reliable and trustworthy futures trading broker. There are many traders who are still unaware of the fact that they need to choose an awesome futures trading broker. The NinjaTrader platform is ideal for active traders who want lots of technical analysis tools. The platform boasts excellent charting, real-time analysis, customizable technical indicators, Chart Trader (a chart-based order entry tool), and thousands of apps and add-ons from 3rd-party developers.

• This means you can lose significantly more money than you have in the account, which leads to debt.
• Many futures exchanges allow investors to enter into both long-term contracts and short-term contracts .
• Having these industry experts do the research for you can greatly benefit your longer-term views on commodities that you are trading.
• Interactive Brokers charges as little as $0.08 per Small Exchange futures contract.

In illiquid markets, your transactions are likely to have a price impact. It means that when you sell your futures contracts, you are pushing the price down. The result is that you will sell some or all of your contracts at a lower price. Slippage refer to the difference between your desired price and the lower price you sold at. Prior to a name change in September 2021, Charles Schwab Futures and Forex LLC was known as TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex LLC.

Learn how to get started with a futures trading account

In addition to the standard charting tools like candlestick charts and moving averages indicators, traders can now find all their favourite indicators within one click using the search function. MoneyMade is not a registered broker-dealer or investment adviser. The information contained herein regarding available investments is obtained from third party sources.

Interactive Brokers’ futures offering scores among the highest in our analysis, thanks to the broker’s flexible low pricing and professional-level trading platforms and tools. The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments. As of 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that brokers including future traders earned an average annual wage of $70,190.

You can do futures trade of individual stocks, shares of ETFs, bonds, and bitcoin. You can compare their accounts on Oanda.com and choose between a spread-only account option or check out if you qualify for a premium trading account to get set pricing plus commission. Oanda’s platform is great for traders who seek big selection of asset classes and currency pairs.

Our Solutions For Diversified Traders

What makes futures a great option is that it benefits from favorable tax treatment according to Section 1256 of the Internal Revenue Code . You should also remember that although the term margin is used across various financial instruments, there are differences between its uses. The FND will vary depending on the contract and the exchange rules. In simple terms, financial derivatives are instruments that get their value from the price fluctuation of another instrument. Here are a few terms to familiarize yourself with futures if you’re a beginner or looking to brush up on your knowledge.

You simply have to decide what your most important needs are as a trader, and that tends to change over time. Choosing the right futures brokers that will meet your experience level and needs is essential when planning your trading business. Make sure to spend ample time evaluating brokerages that fit your personal needs as a trader. Although the platform can take some time to learn, it is reasonably intuitive for traders with experience.

Another great feature is their community which allows traders to connect and share trading ideas. They offer a free trial and demo account – great for getting to know the platform before opening a real money account. This guide will take you through our research on the best futures brokers. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission is an independent agency that regulates all derivatives contracts in the U.S., including futures, options, and swaps. The CFTC helps ensure that U.S. derivatives markets are efficient, orderly, fair, and free of fraud. TD Ameritrade was founded as a full-service online broker in 1975 and continues to be a leading online broker.

TD Ameritrade, Inc. and StockBrokers.com are separate, unaffiliated companies and are not responsible for each other’s services and products. Here are the Overall rankings for the 17 online brokers who participated in our 2023 Review, sorted by Overall ranking. The underlying 5,000 bushels multiplied by the price per bushel ($7.73) equals $38,650 for the total trade value. 5% of the trade value or $1,932 is the margin requirement needed to open this position. A sell-to-close order allows you to exit your existing long position.

Lightspeed requires a high minimum balance of $10,000 for its web client and $25,000 for its desktop software. No matter who you are, NinjaTrader has the tools that you need and the flexibility to build your platform around it. But at the same time, no matter who you are, NinjaTrader almost certainly has more tools than you need. This platform comes with an enormous range of tools, and sifting through them can be a chore as much as value.

The best futures brokers let you invest in assets that aren’t available through the stock market or other easily-accessible sources. But when you’re looking to diversify how you invest money with futures, it’s important to understand the risks and to focus on futures brokers that can help cut costs. It was expected that more retail brokers would merge after the whole brokerage industry got disrupted when all retail brokers announced commission free trading.

When compiling this list, we considered usability, fees, customer support, and more. Tickmill is a good option for traders that are just getting started and don’t have a ton of capital on their hands. They support many easy-to-fund accounts, and withdrawals are free and simple. Many users also note that they have great research materials, a quality customer service team, and educational training and content. Some users don’t like that there is no mobile app, which is especially useful for day trading futures.

They can come with many additional resources to help you trade commodity or stock futures like company-level research or other analysis tools, though finding the one that’s right for you is very important. Continue reading below as we cover the top platforms for accessing the futures exchanges. TD Ameritrade has included a futures trading experience in their top class trading platform Thinkorswim to help you manage your trades better.

The margin depends on the margin requirements of the asset and index that you are trading. Remember that when you trade on leverage, there is a higher potential for both gains and losses. Generic Trade has some of the lowest commission fees on futures, with a maximum of $0.59 per trade. Their trading platform Thinkorswim has fast order execution, state of the art tools and features. Futures traders may never intend to own the commodity, just to sell the contract a profit if its value increases. One way of doing this is through a futures contract, which states that they will get a specific amount delivered at a future date at a pre-agreed price.

Also, the platform offers tight spreads, zero commission, no hidden fees, and negative balance protection. Fineco Bank is a great UK stock futures trading platform because you can trade in British Pounds and the platform offers no stamp duty on profits. Along with low futures contract fee of £0.5 and tight spreads applied by Fineco Bank, you’ll receive one of the best futures trading deals in the industry. Now let’s dive deeper into the top 10 futures trading platforms so you can better decide between them.

Operating since 2009, FBS has won numerous prestigious awards best commodity brokers the Best FX IB program and best international Forex Broker. FXTM offers a better than average array of options on both MT4 and MT5 and shows a commitment to delivering what users want and need. Having WebTrader as well as the downloadable desktop versions is another sign of a user-centric approach. You have the option as to whether you want to access it in a browser with no download, or via the dedicated program. The ECN offering by FXTM is a confidence booster that there are no conflicts possible in the trade and execution is both timely and transparent.