Best Futures Brokers in 2024 • Benzinga (2024)

Benzinga readers often choose Interactive Brokers, Plus500 or NinjaTrader as the best futures brokers.

Futures trading history is as simple as understanding the concept of farmers planting crops every spring, and then, every fall, farmers harvesting grain and locking in prices early in the season, rather than later. In fact, farmers were originally the ones who taught Wall Street how to trade futures. (No lie!) That's why you need access to the best futures brokerage.

Inchoosing a broker, serious futures traders must balance low commissions, intuitive platforms, excellent customer service and up-to-date research options. Traders also need charting and screening tools to guide decision-making.

In a world where futures trading is already a high-risk endeavor, it’s even more of a risk if a platform is clunky, a trading app can’t keep up, or customer support has no idea what a Fibonacci indicator is. Everything must tick along as smoothly as a Rolex Cellini tracks the seconds in a day.

Start with our guide to find an online futures brokers platform to make your trading experience seamless.

8 Best Futures Brokers

Here are Benzinga's top picks for the best futures trading platform.

• Best for US Mobile Users: Plus500
• Best for Desktop Traders: NinjaTrader
• Best for Global Traders: Interactive Brokers
• Best for High Volume Traders: Discount Trading
• Best Software for Trading Futures: Optimus Futures
• Best for Low Deposit Requirement: Tickmill
• Best for Early Investors: Generic Trade
• Best for Advanced Traders: Tradestation

1. Best for US Mobile Users: Plus500

Plus500 is a global multi-asset fintech group that operates trading platforms globally, offering a range of trading products including CFDs, Share dealing, and Futures trading (US).

Highlights of this platform include:

• Quick onboarding
• Simplified mobile trading
• Easy-to-use platform
• Offers2800+ CFDs, 2700+ Shares, and a variety of Futures (Metals, Crypto, Agriculture, Forex, Interest rates, Energy, Equity Index)
• Free deposits and withdrawals
• $100 minimum
• 0.7% currency conversion fee per transaction, when the currency in your account is different from those traded

Because Plus500 doesn’t charge a commission and only profits on spreads, you save money and don’t have to worry about overpriced fees. If you’re a beginner, there are insights, the Trading Academy and webinars you can check out on YouTube. You can jump into Plus500, make the most of your expertise, build your portfolio and quickly turn a profit.

2. Best for Desktop Traders: NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader has an amazing trading platform for those just beginning their trading careers as well as for advanced traders. Its extensive collection of technical analysis tools is perfect for beginners utilizing a demo account, and it even offers a 2-week free trial when you register.

If you want to use NinjaTraders software, you can get it for free when you fund a brokerage account or you can lease the software. You will get access to charts, simulated trading, and market analysis, the essentials for futures trading, even if you get the software for free.

3. Best for Global Traders: Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers offers low commissions for futures traders from USD 0.25 to 0.85 per contract, with the ability to trade commodity futures and futures options globally on 30+ market centers. Furthermore, they offer industry low margin rates from 4.58% or less, powerful futures trading tools including their ComboTrader, SpreadTrader, and Index Arbitrage Meter, and educational material for novice futures traders.

4. Best for High Volume Traders: Discount Trading

Futures traders looking for volume discounts have plenty of options, but few make trading as simple and affordable as Discount Trading. For starters, Discount Trading doesn’t just offer affordable commissions - they have some of the cheapest trading fees of any futures broker currently on the market!

If you make only a single futures trade each month, your commission will be a mere 49 cents per side. However, if you’re an active trader flipping more than 50,000 contracts per month, your commission will be just 19 cents.

5. Best Software for Trading Futures: Optimus Futures

Optimus Futures is a discount futures broker geared towards both beginner and experienced traders alike.

With low account minimums, fast account approvals and easy funding and withdrawals, Optimus Futures is an ideal solution for anyone interested in trading CME Group’s micro futures with free platforms and low margins. Optimus customers also get access to dedicated staff to address your trading needs at every step, from initial account application and platform set-up to providing on-going education and resources to help you learn more about the futures markets via guides, videos, podcasts, and articles.

6. Best for Low Deposit Requirement: Tickmill

Tickmill is a platform that is designed to give you access to all the asset classes in which you might want to invest, including CFDs, precious metals, stocks, commodities, options and futures. Because you gain access to exclusive analysis items and trading tools, you have a much easier time managing your futures investments.

Plus, you can invest in several futures exchanges with leverage up to 1:500, including:

• CME
• CBOT
• NYMEX
• COMEX
• EUREX
• ICE Futures Europe

Generally, you can invest in futures that relate to:

• Stocks
• Indices
• Forex
• Metals
• Crypto
• Energy assets

Certain futures are most popular, including an S&P 500 micro e-mini, NASDAQ 100 micro e-mini and micro Bitcoin futures.

You can buy into futures with low fees and transparent commissions. There’s also ultra-low latency and seamless trading for high volume traders who are always on the go.

New offer! New clients that sign up in the next 3 months and choose a trading platform (CQG Desktop or TradingView Pro), Tickmill will reimburse all the platform’s costs and fees for 3 months from the date of enrollment. For each trade on E-mini and Micro contracts, Tickmill reimburses up to 16% of your trading commissions.

7. Best for Early Investors: Generic Trade

Generic Trade has some of the lowest commission fees of any futures traders at a maximum of $0.59 per trade. Generic Trade prides themselves on transparency and keeps their prices lower than other futures brokers by eliminating the need for salespeople and brokers.

The firm believes modern traders already have such a wealth of information at their disposal they mainly need a firm to execute their trades at the lowest cost. It also doesn't have minimum account balances and volume requirements, making it assessable to most traders.

8. Best for Advanced Traders: Tradestation

TradeStation offers 2 distinct account types: its basic TS GO account aimed at new trades and its more in-depth TS Select account aimed at more advanced traders looking for a comprehensive set of tools and research options.

There’s no minimum account balance required to open a TS GO account. TS Select accounts require a $2,000 minimum deposit.

What Matters Most When Trading Futures Contracts?

Ultimately, depending on the trader, the futures broker characteristic that matters to one trader may matter more or less to another. For example, each trader’s preference on a platform can vary widely. Not every trader will agree on what he or she would like to see on a broker’s platform. (Remember, not every painter prefers the same paintbrush, and the same goes for individual traders. Some don’t need all the bells and whistles.)

Perhaps one thing that raises the most red flags are those pesky commissions and margin fees. It might be reckless to choose a broker just because it’s the cheapest, but, boy, is it easy to overpay. It’s important to figure out on the front end exactly how much money will eke out during each trade.

And finally, customer service can make or break an experience with that particular broker. Determine your personal priorities, and use our guide to find the best futures brokers platform for you.

Want to learn more?Check out Benzinga’s guides onhow to trade futures,how to buy oil futures andhow to start online gold trading.

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