Futures trading can be an exciting and complex way to put your money to work, but not every broker allows their clients to trade futures. For this reason, we've compiled a list of the best futures brokers we've found. Keep reading to for our top futures brokers, how to open an account for futures trading, and more.
3 Featured Picks From Our Best Futures Trading Platforms
There are a lot of options to compare, even on this page. It can be overwhelming! If you're looking for a place to start, here are some trading platforms our experts recommend and why they like them:
- Interactive Brokers: Great broker for advanced futures traders
- Tastytrade: Standout option for serious futures traders
- TradeStation: Fantastic future trading platform
Our 5 Best Brokers for Futures Trading
| Broker/Advisor | Best For | Commissions | Next Steps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Interactive Brokers Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Best For: Active and experienced futures traders | Commission: $0 per options trade, $0.15-$0.65 per contract | Open Account for Interactive Brokers |
Tastytrade Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Best For: Serious futures traders | Commission: $0 for stocks, $1 per option contract (opening trades only), 1% per crypto purchase and sale | Open Account for Tastytrade |
TradeStation Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Best For: Futures traders who are conscious about costs and account minimums | Commission: $0 stock trades | Open Account for TradeStation |
Charles Schwab Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Best For: Futures traders who want a great all-around investment platform | Commission: $0 stock, ETF, and Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource® trades | Read Review |
NinjaTrader Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. | Best For: | Commission: Commission fees vary based on plan chosen. Plans range from a $0 monthly fee, to $99 per month, to a one-time payment of $1,499. | Read Review |
How do I choose a futures broker?
Here are some questions to ask when comparing futures brokers:
- Do you want to trade futures in the same place where you keep your long-term investments and retirement accounts? Some brokers only offer a trading platform and one or two account types, while others have pretty much any kind of investment account you can think of, and then some.
- Does the broker offer educational resources? Whether you're new to futures or just seeking more information, a broker that offers extensive educational resources could be a smart idea.
- What is the cost of trading futures with the broker? You'll pay a per-contract fee to trade futures, and this can vary widely from platform to platform, and even within the same platform, it can vary based on the type of futures contracts and the volume you're trading.
It's also important to make sure any brokerage you consider offers securities you're interested in. Whether that means a specific futures contract, stocks, bonds, or other investments -- not all brokerages carry all types of securities or even all types of futures contracts.
Open Account for Interactive Brokers
OnInteractive Brokers'Secure Website.
Compare the best futures trading platforms for March 2024
Show The List [+]Hide The List [-]
- Active and experienced futures traders:Interactive Brokers
- Serious futures traders:Tastytrade
- Futures traders who are conscious about costs and account minimums:TradeStation
- Futures traders who want a great all-around investment platform:Charles Schwab
- NinjaTrader
Ratings Methodology
Our Rating:
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. = Best = Excellent = Good = Fair = Poor
Bottom Line
Interactive Brokers caters to high-volume traders and is one of the cheapest way to trade futures on our list.
Read Full Review
Fees:
$0 per options trade, $0.15-$0.65 per contract
Account Minimum:
$0
Open Account for Interactive Brokers
OnInteractive Brokers'Secure Website.
2024 Award Winner
Our Rating:
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. = Best = Excellent = Good = Fair = Poor
Bottom Line
The Tastyworks platform is specifically designed for options and futures trading, with tons of unique features and excellent pricing.
Read Full Review
Fees:
$0 for stocks, $1 per option contract (opening trades only), 1% per crypto purchase and sale
Account Minimum:
$0
Open Account for Tastytrade
OnTastytrade'sSecure Website.
Our Rating:
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. = Best = Excellent = Good = Fair = Poor
Bottom Line
TradeStation is a great platform for investors who want to get started in futures trading, with low minimums and tons of futures to choose from.
Read Full Review
Fees:
$0 stock trades
Account Minimum:
$0
Special Offer
New accounts with qualifying assets earn $50 to $5,000 using code FOOLAFYJ
Open Account for TradeStation
OnTradeStation'sSecure Website.
2024 Award Winner
Our Rating:
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. = Best = Excellent = Good = Fair = Poor
Bottom Line
Charles Schwab offers reasonably priced futures trading with some other excellent investing features.
Fees:
$0 stock, ETF, and Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource® trades
Account Minimum:
$0
Read Review
Our Rating:
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
4.0/5Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.5 stars equals Best.4 stars equals Excellent.3 stars equals Good.2 stars equals Fair.1 star equals Poor.We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs. = Best = Excellent = Good = Fair = Poor
Bottom Line
Fees:
Commission fees vary based on plan chosen. Plans range from a $0 monthly fee, to $99 per month, to a one-time payment of $1,499.
Account Minimum:
$0
Read Review
Editor's Note: TD Ameritrade is transitioning to Charles Schwab
TD Ameritrade has been acquired by Charles Schwab, and the company expects all accounts to be transitioned by the end of 2024. We've removed TD Ameritrade from our best-of lists to align with this development. Here at The Ascent, you can trust that we're constantly evaluating our top broker picks to bring you current recommendations.
How to open a futures trading account
Once you've decided on a brokerage that supports futures trading, the next step is to open an account.
You'll need to provide some personal information, including your Social Security number.
You may have to fill out a tax form, as brokerage firms need to be able to send you tax documents every year detailing your profits, losses, interest, etc.
You may need to answer a quick questionnaire about your knowledge and experience about these products. Some brokers want to make sure you have some knowledge of investing before you begin trading futures, to mitigate risk.
Trading futures: Not for beginners
If you're a beginner, this might not be the right page for you. Futures are complex financial instruments and are very different from stocks and bonds. Trading futures requires a great deal of research and knowledge and can be incredibly risky.
For in-depth information on trading futures, head to our primer: Futures Trading: Everything You Need to Know
If you're simply interested in an overview of futures, you'll find a summary of futures trading below. However, what you'll read below is not enough information to begin trading futures.
What are futures?
Futures are agreements to sell a fixed amount of an asset at a specific date in the future -- instead of buying a commodity, currency, or other asset at today's market price.
How do futures work?
Futures are traded in the form of contracts, which are agreements between the seller of an asset and the buyer, or futures trader. For example, one oil futures contract typically represents 1,000 barrels of oil to be delivered at a certain future date. Futures contracts can represent a wide variety of commodities, currencies, stock indices, and more.
There are a couple of other types of futures and related investments worth knowing about:
Options on futures: These work similarly to stock options. A futures option gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a certain futures contract at a predetermined price at any time before the option's expiration date.
E-Mini futures: E-mini futures are contracts that represent a smaller amount of assets than the standard contract. For example, CME's E-mini S&P 500 futures contract represents one-fifth the assets of its standard S&P 500 futures contract. Because they represent smaller quantities of assets, many brokers offer lower commission rates on E-mini contracts.
What can you trade futures on?
Just to name a few, here are some of the types of futures contracts you can trade:
- Stock index futures
- Interest rates
- Metals
- Foreign currency
- Energy
- Livestock
- Commodities
Pros and cons of futures trading
Pros
Longer market hours: Futures markets are open considerably longer hours than the stock market. For example, CME's futures markets are open nearly 23 hours a day, six days a week.
Tons of available assets: Want to invest in the price of oil? Orange juice? Bitcoin? Coffee? Euros? Want to predict the direction of interest rates? Those are just a few of the assets you can find futures contracts on.
Lots of leverage: Margin is a standard component of futures trading, to a much greater extent than the stock market. This can be a good or bad thing, but it does let you control a relatively large contract value with a small capital outlay.
No time decay: In options trading, options contracts generally lose some of their value over time as they get closer to expiration, a phenomenon known as time decay. Because futures contracts represent the actual price of an asset, and not the right to buy an asset, there's no time decay involved.
Cons
Risk: Futures trading is a completely different animal than stock or options trading and carries its own set of risks. It can be very easy to lose money with futures trading if you don't know what you're doing.
World events: Events beyond investors' control can influence futures prices and lead to huge losses in some cases. For example, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there simply wasn't enough space to put all of the oil represented by futures contracts after demand collapsed. So, oil futures actually traded for negative prices at one point.
High leverage: As mentioned, the use of leverage can be a positive or negative. While high leverage gives you exposure to a high dollar value of assets, it can also make relatively small swings in asset prices turn into huge swings in futures traders' accounts.
How much money do you need to trade futures?
This depends on your broker and the futures you want to trade.
Some brokers have a minimum amount of money that must be in an account before futures trading can take place. Others don't have a set minimum.
There's also margin minimums to consider, which have to do with the specific futures contracts you want to trade. This is a different concept than using margin to trade stocks, and is the minimum amount of money you'll need in your account in order to trade a specific type of futures contract. This can vary based on a few factors, including the volatility of that particular type of futures.
While you may be able to open a futures trading account with a relatively small amount of money, in reality you may need significantly more in your account to start trading the types of futures you're interested in.
Risks of futures trading
The risks of futures trading are quite complicated and could be the topic of their own long-form article. But there are a couple of big risks that are important to keep in mind before you open an account.
First, futures trading generally uses a lot of leverage. When trading stocks on margin, you can typically get two-to-one leverage, meaning that you can buy $10,000 in stock with a $5,000 account balance. When it comes to futures, there can be significantly higher leverage -- as much as 20 to one. This can be both a positive factor (higher profits) as well as a big negative factor. Because of this, if your futures trade starts going in the wrong direction, you may be required to deposit more money to cover the maintenance margin requirements and could ultimately result in big losses.
Second, while it might seem obvious, futures contracts are speculative investments that are based on the future price of something. And there's a lot that can happen between now and then. There was a famous situation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic where oil demand crashed when everyone went into lockdown, and oil futures were actually trading for negative values because there was simply nowhere to put all of the oil they represented.
These aren't the only risks of futures trading. It's important to study the risks and benefits of futures before you attempt to trade them.
Is futures trading right for you?
It depends. Like any other kind of trading, futures are appropriate for investors who really know what they're doing. Futures trading can be risky. For one thing, futures investors often use a significant amount of margin (leverage) when trading. Think of margin as borrowing a portion of an investment's value -- similar to getting a mortgage to pay for what your down payment doesn't cover on a house. Any time there's a large component of leverage, there's going to be the potential for amplified losses if things go the wrong way.
It's important for beginners to learn as much as possible before getting started. If you're thinking of starting to trade futures, it could be a smart idea to choose a broker with tons of educational resources. Also look for a "play money" platform so you can try futures trading without risking your actual money until you're 100% sure you're ready.
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FAQs
Traders should look for these important factors in a trading platform:
- Strong industry reputation
- Reliable track record and fast trade execution
- Wide range of exchanges around the world
- Easy to use interface
- Low trading costs and account fees
- Up-to-date security standards
- Educational content and research tools
Not all brokerages allow futures trading. Investors will need to find brokers that offer futures trading. Some of the things to consider are low commissions, a robust trading platform, educational resources, and a wide range of futures products.
Like most investments, there is risk in trading futures. It is possible to lose more money than you invested in your account. Investors should not use money they can't afford to lose, especially if they do not know what they are doing.
Our Brokerages Experts
By:Matt Frankel, CFP®
Writer, Analyst
Matt is a Certified Financial Planner™ and investment advisor based in Columbia, South Carolina. He writes personal finance and investment advice for The Ascent and its parent company The Motley Fool, with more than 4,500 published articles and a 2017 SABEW Best in Business award. Matt writes a weekly investment column ("Ask a Fool") that is syndicated in USA Today, and his work has been regularly featured on CNBC, Fox Business, MSN Money, and many other major outlets. He’s a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Nova Southeastern University, and holds a graduate certificate in financial planning from Florida State University.
Fact CheckedAshley Maready
Writer and Editor
Ashley Maready is a former history museum professional who made the leap to digital content writing and editing in 2021. She has a BA in History and Philosophy from Hood College and an MA in Applied History from Shippensburg University. Ashley loves creating content for the public and learning new things so she can teach others, whether it's information about salt mining, canal mules, or personal finance.
