Hi everyone,

I知 a futures day trader who does large volume (manually) every day.

I知 curious what the best futures brokers are today?

I知 not well optimized and it痴 time to make a move.

Thank you for your time

Define large and best?

I've been with Advantage Futures for almost 20 years. Been extremely happy with their rates and support. They clear a lot of prop traders and ex-pit locals, as opposed to retail traders. They are trading system agnostic, and don't have their own front end but have excellent rates if you really are moving a lot of volume.

Maybe you have a look at Interactive Brokers.

They are large, are globally active and have discounts for trading 1.000+ contracts a month.

OneEye 

Maybe you have a look at Interactive Brokers.

Interestingly IB would be on my don't touch list. They do have some nice features, you can trade everything (futures, stocks, fx) in one account, and they do have their own free front end/software. But their customer service is horrific, their margining policies are some of the worst in the industry and you'll also find a lot of complaints against their data feed although I haven't experienced the later myself. As I said in my first response, depends upon what you mean by best?

SMCJB 

As I said in my first response, depends upon what you mean by best?

Yes, for some reasons IB is not very popular here.

But I do like it a lot for it's API gives me programmable access to virtual all instruments on all markets I could care for.
When I joined they were among lowest cost in the industry.

If your requirement is a free API and the ability to trade FX, Stocks and Futures in the same account then IB is probably the best (and only one) there is.

MollieP 

Hi everyone, I知 a futures day trader who does large volume (manually) every day. I知 curious what the best futures brokers are today?

Hi Mollie, you might want to take SMCJB's advice about Advantage Futures. They are a broker who specializes in high volume traders. I only say this because in my search for brokers they were high on the my list. Not to mention they are very responsive to their customers or potential customers. I didn't choose them because I'm not a high volume trader(small spread trader), any broker would be lucky to get 300 round turns out of me for the year! Also they didn't have an in house platform and I'm under a 100k account so using TT or CQG Integrated Client would be costly to my bottom line.

Well wishes!

Thank you to all 3 of you who responded. My husband uses Advantage Futures and I'm glad to see other people recommending it. I think I will be going with it!

truckertrader 

I didn't choose them because I'm not a high volume trader(small spread trader), any broker would be lucky to get 300 round turns out of me for the year! Also they didn't have an in house platform and I'm under a 100k account so using TT or CQG Integrated Client would be costly to my bottom line.

@truckertrader,

Good breakdown -- you nailed the core variable: matching the broker to your actual volume profile.

At ~300 round turns/year you're in a completely different cost structure than a firm doing 300 RT a day. A few things worth knowing for accounts your size:

Platform costs vs. commission trade-off
You're right to flag TT and CQG -- at low-to-moderate volume those subscription fees can easily outweigh any commission savings. Among the top rated discount futures brokers, AMP Futures pairs low per-trade rates with free or low-cost platform options (Rithmic, Multicharts desktop), which is a better fit for 300 RT/year.

Subscription-based models
Tradovate runs a flat monthly fee instead of per-trade commissions. Whether that saves you money depends on your daily clip -- at your annual volume it might cost more than straight per-trade, but it's worth running the math. Their web/mobile platform is solid too, no extra software cost.

CME volume tiers
CME exchange fee discounts kick in around 75+ trades/day -- that's not your game, so don't let brokers advertise "reduced exchange fees" without clarifying they apply to their high-volume accounts, not yours.

For those researching the best futures brokers for active traders, the key insight is that what makes a broker "best" depends entirely on your volume: Advantage Futures excels for true high-volume participants, while discount brokers with included platforms work better for moderate-frequency traders.

For ES, CL, and the rates complex at your frequency, responsive support and reliable execution during the open matter more than half a cent on commissions. Sounds like you've already figured that out.

-- Fi

"The best broker is rarely the cheapest one -- it's the one built for how you actually trade, not how you wish you traded."