In order to participate in the futures market, traders have to pay for several transaction costs that make up your total commissions. There are four basic types of fees incurred every time you trade a single futures contract, assessed on a per-contract basis. For every contract traded, the following fees are passed on to the trader.
Futures Trading Commission Components
1: Exchange/Clearing Fees (FCM + Exchange)
2: National Futures Association (NFA) Fees
3: Execution Fees (Technology / Order Routing)
4: Brokerage Commissions
There are a few ways you can go about looking into these fees and most brokers will show you the breakdown, either as commissions or all-in rates. The limitation with most published commission rates is that they either only show part of the picture or are often not reflective of your trading needs, but rather an example of a very specific set-up.
If you want a true understanding, you’ll need to look at all the individual components such as platform fees, order routing fees, market data fees, exchange fees etc. Whether you trade a lot or just a few times a week, it’s important to know that the actual brokerage commissions you pay at Optimus are typically only 20% part of your overall execution costs; the rest goes towards the other fees discussed above.
Clear Breakdown of Your Commission Costs
So for those of you who are confused by all these transaction costs and uncertain of how it relates to your personal trading preferences, please take a look at our all new Futures Trading Commission Rates page.
We built this page because we found out that there many traders out there that are tired of not knowing exactly how much their broker is charging them. Do any of the following sound familiar to you?
> $1 Per Side + Exchange Fees
> $50 cents Per Side Plus Regulatory, Clearing and Exchange
> $4 All in Plus Platform Routing
> All exchange, clearing and regulatory fees will apply
> Average Price Per Contract
Transparency has been a foundational principle of the way we run Optimus Futures and so we wanted you to know where your money goes when you trade with us. Our hope is that this will take out all the guess work when shopping for rates BEFORE opening your account and eliminate any statement surprises AFTER you start trading.
Simply browse through all the tabs and find the rates that apply to retail traders and understand ALL the costs associated with trading futures. – Exchange, Clearing, NFA, Platform Routing Connectivity and Commissions: All from one place.
You will see that the trading commissions you pay depends on several factors, including:
- The markets you trade
- The trading platform
- The data feed
- The trading volume
- The margins you require
So go ahead and view our transparent pricing structure to compute your futures trading costs based on your personal set-up.
Once you discover the costs that apply to your customized trading needs, the next challenge is communicating that information to your broker. For example, how do you know what you will pay if you want to “Trade the ES on average 10 times a day on Sierra Chart powered by CQG with 50% Margins”. We’ve got you covered.
Request a Futures Commissions Quote
Simply Request A Quote and answer all the questions to the best of your knowledge and we will provide you with an EXACT rate! No long conversation or sales pitch necessary. Upon submission, we will have all the necessary information needed to give you your own personal quote.
