Trading in financial markets requires the right choice of a broker, as security of traders’ funds, their profit and opportunities depend on it. Before you start working with a company, it is important to comprehensively assess it. Traders Union analysts have already done it for you. The experts prepared a review of the Best Futures Trading Brokers in the US for 2024. Five companies that enjoy huge popularity in the US were selected and compared between each other.
1
eToro - Best in the US for 2024
You can use eToro to invest in more than 3,000 stock assets, including at zero fee. The minimum deposit and leverage vary depending on the country of registration of a trader. Trading is available in mobile apps and on the web platform on any device. You can deposit and withdraw money via bank transfer and electronic payment systems. The broker offers margin trading, various bonuses and partner rewards.
2
GAIN Capital - Best in the US for 2024
GAIN Capital unites three brokers and offers 12,000 trading instruments. A wide variety of assets is available on the platform, including: Forex, CFDs, stocks, bonds, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.
The company's leverage ranges from 1:30 for the Forex market to 1:5 for stock CFDs. GAIN Capital offers clients only one type of trading account. Swap-free trading is not provided and there are no Muslim accounts within the company.
3
Thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade - Best in the US for 2024
TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim trading conditions are competitive for the US Forex market but relatively uncomfortable for non-residents. This is due to the legal standards of trading in the American foreign exchange market like commission fees, taxation, and other issues.
4
Interactive Brokers - Best in the US for 2024
Interactive Brokers is militantly developing, offering services to investors regardless of their trading experience. For this purpose, the broker doesn’t ask for a fixed minimum deposit but has margin requirements for accounts of various structures to make trading financially safe. The size of the leverage and Margin call and Stop out levels depends directly on the asset that the client is trading.
5
Charles Schwab - Best in the US for 2024
Charles Schwab offers its traders and investors a superb StreetSmart trading platform. Trading is possible through the company's web terminal, in the mobile application, and using the desktop version. Opening an account is available from $1 with no additional service fees. No brokerage fee is charged for US stocks (except for high volume, difficult to execute contracts).
TU Expert Review for the best Futures Trading Brokers in the US
Financial expert and analyst at Traders Union
Anton joined Traders Union as a financial expert and analyst in 2013. He performs comprehensive internal testing of brokers as a trader. Essentially, Anton “test drives” brokers: he checks the operation of the website and user account, the speed and effectiveness of customer support team, stability of the software, deposit and withdrawal processing times, legal documents of companies and also all additional services (VPS, affiliate programs, contests, bonuses, educational programs, etc.). Based on the results of his “inspections”, he prepares expert conclusions about the operation of brokerage companies in the Forex, stock and binary option markets and also of the cryptocurrency exchanges.
His opinion as for the best Futures Trading Brokers in the US is posted below.
eToro - TU Expert Review
eToro is an international brokerage company offering services all across the world. Every registered office adjusts the conditions to suit local traders to enable them to trade on beneficial conditions. The minimum deposit depends on the country of residence of a trader. In particular, the minimum deposit for residents of the US is $10 and UK is $50, Europe – $50, Israel – $10,000. The minimum deposit for overseas territories of the UK and France is $1000, for all other countries – $200. The broker provides retail clients with a negative balance protection and restrictions on opening positions with insufficient margin. The clients can also contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. Investments of traders from a number of European countries are protected by compensation funds. The leverage on eToro varies depending on the type of asset and the registered office chosen for trading. In particular, traders, who chose the office regulated by CySEC or FCA can trade indices with a leverage of 1:10-1:20, ETFs – 1:5. The company with a license of the Seychelles regulator offers a leverage of 1:100 for the most traded indices and 1:10 for non-major indices and ETFs. eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk
GAIN Capital - TU Expert Review
GAIN Capital is one of the largest trading and investment companies in the world. It brings together three brokers and also provides financial advisory services. It is crucial to bear in mind that GAIN Capital is not a broker and if you want to work with this company, trading will be carried out through its subsidiaries. The brokers that are part of GAIN Capital are reliable and trusted companies. They are licensed by reputable financial regulators and have a good reputation. They work in different financial segments—Forex and the stock market. So, traders need to choose a company depending on their trading priorities. Nevertheless, GAIN Capital can offer users products for both trading and investing.
Thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade - TU Expert Review
TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim is a licensed broker that is fundamentally different from classic brokers in Europe. Forex is strictly monitored in the USA and TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim is authorized to provide currency pair trading services. The company also offers direct access to the American stock exchanges. Its emphases are on trading in securities, futures, options, and other derivatives, and securities of ETF funds. A separate area is the withdrawal of OTC assets, the OTC stocks, and the bond market. The OTC market differs from CFDs and the usual Forex trades are in the absolute control of the regulator. Thinkorswim is a unique proprietary platform that is considered the best in its class. Advanced analysis of securities yields, FRED charting, tools for identifying dozens of candlestick patterns, and market sentiment analysis are only a small part of its capabilities. It does not have MetaTrader 4 or QUIK. It will be a mammoth task to deal with it intuitively by typing. There are 400 technical indicators built into the Thinkorswim terminal. Many of the offered TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim tools, like the platform itself, is unfamiliar to CIS traders. And it will not be easy for traders to connect to a broker. The broker works only with US residents. Nevertheless, the company deserves attention and, perhaps, acquaintance with it will open up new investment horizons for traders. The reliability of the company is beyond doubt. Therefore it is rightfully included in the Traders Union Forex broker ratings.
Interactive Brokers - TU Expert Review
During its cooperation with Traders Union the Interactive Brokers investment company proved itself as a reliable partner, which faithfully fulfills its obligations to us. The broker provides clients with a wide range of services, allowing them to engage in both active trading and investments. At the same time, the broker charges a fee for an inactive account, and that's not convenient for passive investors. Despite the lack of a minimum deposit, Interactive Brokers is focused on working with professional market participants. The US and Canadian investors are the main target audiences of the company. Interactive Brokers customer support will help you resolve claims made to the company. You can find all the information about trading conditions and the specifics of various trading instruments on the broker's website. Before opening an account with this broker, we strongly recommend you to read about all trading conditions in detail, as well as reviews of other clients about cooperation with Interactive Brokers.
Charles Schwab - TU Expert Review
Analysis of Charles Schwab broker’s conditions and its website showed that the company is equally focused on active online trading and investment. You can start on the stock market with a zero deposit, besides, it has its training program, so the broker is a real catch for newbies. The support service is available around the clock. The Charles Schwab broker offers a slightly different approach to margin trading. Instead of leverage, the size of which is calculated concerning the deposit, a margin lending system is applied. Hence, the client takes out a loan to buy securities and upon completion of the related transactions pays the broker interest at a rate of 8%. For instance, a client buys shares for $5,000, which allows him to buy the same amount on a loan. After the sale of these securities, he is obliged to repay Charles Schwab a loan of $5,000 + 8% ($400). A trader's net profit is the funds remaining after the sale of assets minus payment of brokerage fees and taxes.
Summary
Many brokers operate in the US, but not all of them are reliable or offer attractive trading conditions. TU experts selected 5 companies and rated them based on collected data. By reviewing them, you will learn about the Best Futures Trading Brokers in the US 2024 and will be able to evaluate the pros and cons of its closest competitors.
Overall score of the best Futures Trading Brokers in the US
| eToro | GAIN Capital | Thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade | Interactive Brokers | Charles Schwab | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Overall score |
9.4 |
7.23 |
6.43 |
9.1 |
8.6 |
|
Execution of orders |
9.1 |
2.99 |
6.2 |
8.8 |
8.3 |
|
Investment instruments |
9.7 |
9.92 |
4.55 |
9.4 |
8.9 |
|
Withdrawal speed |
9.5 |
8.57 |
7.66 |
9.2 |
8.7 |
|
Customer Support work |
9.3 |
5.53 |
6.37 |
9 |
8.5 |
|
Variety of instruments |
9 |
8.75 |
9 |
8.7 |
8.2 |
|
Trading platform |
9.8 |
7.62 |
4.78 |
9.5 |
9 |
|
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FAQ
Does the choice of a beginner differ from the choice of an experienced trader?
Yes. A novice trader should primarily consider the availability of educational tools and a demo account, as well as basic assets. A more experienced trader is interested in wider opportunities on advanced account types, a wider choice of instruments for technical analysis, and a greater number of trading instruments.
How much money do I need in order to start working in the financial markets?
The initial capital depends on the assets you plan to trade. However, in the majority of cases, $300-500 is a good amount for a start.
Can you earn passive income in the financial markets?
Yes, the best brokers of the US offer passive income options. These could include copy trading, PAMM accounts, managed portfolios, etc.
What commissions and fees should I take into consideration when I am choosing a broker?
The commissions and fees in the financial markets are divided into trading and non-tradings ones. Trading fees are the fees that are charged directly during trading (spread, commission per lot, etc.), while non-trading fees are the ones charged outside the trading process (for example, account fee, inactivity fee, deposit and withdrawal fee).
Best Futures Trading Brokers by Countries
Team that worked on the article
Mikhail Vnuchkov joined Traders Union as an author in 2020. He began his professional career as a journalist-observer at a small online financial publication, where he covered global economic events and discussed their impact on the segment of financial investment, including investor income. With five years of experience in finance, Mikhail joined Traders Union team, where he is in charge of forming the pool of latest news for traders, who trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, Forex instruments and fixed income.
Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.