Best Futures Trading Platforms in UAE

TradeStation offers 24/7 access to over 350 futures option products, lightning-fast trade execution speeds (26ms), and up to 4:1 leveraged trading possibilities.

UAE traders can only trade on the FuturesPlus trading platform which allows them to trade international futures markets including the CME and ICE on multiple devices (web, desktop and mobile). The platform also allows traders to place conditional ‘’what if’’ orders based on volatility and other market conditions.

TradeStation FuturesPlus Key Features:

• Autofit vol curve – allows users to generate theoretical values and to apply their own vol curves using the built-in Vol Curve Manager. The platform also allows traders to place conditional ‘’what if’’ orders based on volatility and other market conditions.
• Tradestation’s Trade Monitor – allows traders to view all market activity for options and futures on a per-product basis.
• Send RFQs directly from Strategy Creation, Market Grid, Watchlist, RFQ Viewer, or Options Chain.
• TradeStation’s Watchlist – allows traders to monitor and customize their futures trading strategies by using first and second-order Greeks before sending RFQs.
• Access to Micro E-mini futures – allow users to purchase 1/10th the size of ‘’normal’’ futures ( fractional option contracts with leverage).

With 0.266 seconds per filled order, the TradeStation platform offers one of the fastest trade execution speeds and is a great choice for algo and high-frequency traders.

With no commission on future trades of up to $10,000/trade, TradeStation is among the cheapest brokers for trading with futures. Users get charged in the form of overnight fees ( $1,25) per trading day and certain option strategies may incur costs in the form of spreads, straddles, and collars.

TradeStation is a CFTC-licensed futures commission merchant (FCM) and member of CME, NFA, SIPC, FINRA futures exchanges. This allows them to offer index options and futures contracts to self-directed investors and traders.

With trading fees ranging from $0,25 to $0,85 per futures contract and access to over 35 global futures and futures options markets (agriculture, currency, energy, equity index, fixed income, metals, and high-volatility futures), Interactive Brokers is a great choice for traders looking for variety and low fees.

The broker offers two competitive pricing plans for US futures and futures options:

1. Fixed rate pricing – charges a fixed low commission that includes regulatory and clearing fees of $0,85 per contract
2. Volume-tiered pricing plan – trading fees decrease as you trade in large volume and range from $0,25 to $0,85 per contract

The Interactive Brokers trading platform allows users to trade on a variety of assets besides futures and futures options, including stocks and ETFs. Platform users also have access to great trading insights through daily futures arbitrage, interest tables, a US futures market scanner, and the Trader’s University.

To top if off, users are allowed to use a great variety of (third-party provided) order types and algos, including Good-til-Canceled (GTC), Market if Touched, One-Cancels-All (OCA), CSFB Blast, CSFB Sniper, and Fox Dark Attack.

Interactive Brokers is SEC, FCA and CFTC-regulated and is a member of the SIPC. Your IBKR account holding funds are protected by a compensation scheme in the case of insolvency, which makes this broker a safe choice to trade with.

Optimus Futures is a CFTC-regulated online broker specializing in futures trading. Its trading platform (Optimus Flow) offers a great variety of futures trading tools for casual to advanced traders including dynamic charting tools, live data, market depth, volume analysis tools, TPO profile chart, Power Trades and commission rebates.

Users can also use multiple order types like Market, Market on Open, Market on Close, Market if Touched, Stop, Limit, Stop Limit, and One Cancels Other. This makes Optimus Futures an interesting choice for investors looking for a vast range of trading features and order types.

Its trading fees are among the lowest in the industry, ranging from $0,05 to $0,75 per side per contract. Optimus Futures charges withdrawal fees of $30.

Optimus Futures users can choose between 40 futures trading platforms available on multiple devices and also a cloud-based version. Account options are available as: individual, joint, and corporate.

Saxo Bank offers a professional futures trading platform where users can trade over 200 futures contracts and 70 options futures contracts from 28 global exchanges.

The broker has a very professional trading platform that consists of advanced futures tools like Depth Trader and offers the ability to trade directly from the charts.

Saxo Bank allows its users to make use of advanced futures trading tools and multi-legged trading strategies by placing multiple orders on the same order ticket.

UAE residents are not allowed to use Saxo Bank’s futures spread betting tools! Instead they can can place and manage orders based on the Level 2 order book (Depth Trader) which provides all bids and offers waiting to be executed in real-time.

Charles Schwab offers an extensive Research Center providing users with the latest research, news and market commentary on futures moves. They also host ”Looking to the Futures”, a daily analysis podcast that predicts futures market movements. On top of that users have access to industry-leading analysis reports (Hightower and Wyckoff reports) which makes it easy to understand why Charles Schwab is an interesting choice for research & education.

Charles Schwab allows traders to trade hundreds of futures with up to 10:1 leverage across 7 global markets. They also allow short selling, meaning users can hedge their positions by trading options on futures.

View the available futures markets at Charles Schwab in the table below.

Charles Schwab charges a fixed fee of $2,25 per futures contract which doesn’t include NFA fees. This is higher than the other brokers mentioned in this best futures trading platforms in UAE guide. The minimum deposit required to open a futures trading account with Charles Schwab is also quite high, being $25,000.