What is the largest futures trading firm?

You would think there would be a list somewhere, but I have not been able to find it. What is the largest US futures trading firm for retail traders? Who handles the most volume? Is it Interactive Brokers? Ninjatraderbrokerage? AMP? Someone else? Who is second? Who is third?

 

This link may help. List of capitalization and other stats of Futures commission merchants (FCMs)

http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/FinancialDataforFCMs/index.htm

 

JPM and Barclays are much bigger. Look at the size of the accounts with each fcm. This won't tell you volume.

http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/FinancialDataforFCMs/index.htm

 

Largest independent FCM in US is rjobrien.

 

Wow, you must have beat me by like 10 seconds!

 

How does knowing this benefit you, or are you just curious?

 

Thanks Zr1Trader and rmorse. This is interesting. If I am reading this correctly, Goldman Sachs is the largest if you go by the "Customers' Assets in Seg" figures. (However, as rmorse said, this doesn't tell you volume, but it is likely relevant.) So I assume from the data that Goldman has the highest futures volume; but to whom do they cater? I was unable to find futures pricing information for self-directed traders on their site. But can (should?) an individual self-directed futures trader consider going to Goldman? I don't see much about them on this site; is anyone here using them? Who is doing all this futures trading at Goldman and why is Goldman the largest?

 

Thank you; I'll look into them.

 

I am ready to change brokers so this is a good time to consider all the options and I thought I'd try to find out why the largest is the largest.

And as an aside, I would like to utilize the new TT platform from Trading Technologies as it is touted as being both better than X Trader and less expensive. But it is very difficult to get definitive information on who really offers this right now as there is no broker site that I can find that states pricings and offerings outright for TT. (Brokers claim that they are offering it now but they just can't get around to posting any information about it on their sites. Hmmmm.)

 

Trading at the largest FCM does not benefit you. GS only takes large institutional accounts. Most of the other large brokers are the same. In fact last month I had a conversation with the VP of futures sales of a large broker, and they told me they asked all their "small" accounts to move to another broker. They defined small as under $300,000 a year in commissions. I'd love their small accounts!

I would look for an FCM that focuses on futures and does not do everything. We introduce to INTL FC Stone and I like dealing with them.

My email is below if you would like to discuss your needs directly.

Bob