#1
Huatai Securities Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1991CFFEX
Regulation
License
Spread
49.7Score
Ten futures firms hold the longest continuous track record among the CFFEX licensees WIKILIX covers, and the oldest of them, Huatai Securities, opened in May 1991. This page ranks those ten by opening date alone, running from 1991 through the spring of 1993, so the order reflects how long each has actually traded rather than any judgement of quality. All ten hold a licence from the China Financial Futures Exchange, and all carry a clean regulatory status on record.
| # | Broker | Opened | WIKILIX score | Also licensed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HUA TAI (Huatai Securities) | 1991 | 49.7 | SFC |
| 2 | GUODU FUTURES | 1992 | 59.0 | SFC |
| 3 | TONGGUAN JINYUAN FUTURES | 1992 | 4.0 | CFFEX only |
| 4 | CCB Futures | 1993 | 28.1 | CFFEX only |
| 5 | Gelin Dahua | 1993 | 28.1 | CFFEX only |
| 6 | SOOCHOW FUTURES | 1993 | 35.9 | TPEx |
| 7 | HUAXI FUTURES | 1993 | 76.4 | SFC, MAS |
| 8 | GF Futures | 1993 | 55.0 | SFC |
| 9 | CITIC Futures | 1993 | 45.3 | SFC |
| 10 | AVIC FUTURES | 1993 | 28.1 | CFFEX only |
Why opening date is the only thing ranked here
The single criterion is time in operation, measured from each firm's recorded opening date. Nothing else moves a broker up or down. That is a deliberate choice, because these ten vary enormously on every other measure: WIKILIX scores across the group run from 4.0 up to the 76.4 that Huaxi Futures carries, and the median score across the wider CFFEX membership sits at just 28.1. Age tells you something those scores cannot, which is how long a firm has survived the repeated tightening of China's futures rules since the mid-1990s.
The shortlist was drawn from 77 CFFEX members with at least ten years on record. Sixty-two of those 77 opened before 2000, and 27 opened in 1993 or earlier, so the contest for the oldest ten places is tight: a firm founded in 1994 does not make it. Nine members carrying a suspicious-clone or offshore status were set aside, which is why some long-running names are absent.
What a CFFEX licence signals, and what it does not
CFFEX, the China Financial Futures Exchange, is the onshore venue where mainland financial futures and options are traded and cleared, and WIKILIX classifies it as a tier-1 authority. Membership is not handed out lightly, and it sits at the opposite end of the market from the offshore commissions that license much of the retail forex world. Several firms here reach beyond the mainland. Huaxi Futures also holds licences from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while Guodu Futures, GF Futures and CITIC Futures each pair their CFFEX seat with an SFC licence in Hong Kong.
What the licence does not tell you is anything about spreads, platform quality or whether a firm will onboard an individual retail client from outside China. These are institutional futures brokers first. A place on this list says a company has held its CFFEX standing for roughly three decades. It does not say the firm is the right counterparty for any particular trader.
Before you act on any name here
- Confirm the firm's CFFEX membership category, since trading rights and clearing rights differ between members.
- Check which legal entity you would contract with, as several groups here run separate futures and securities arms under similar names.
- For the firms that also list an SFC or MAS licence, verify that licence on the Hong Kong or Singapore register before treating it as cover for your account.
- Read the WIKILIX score in context: a low figure such as the 4.0 against Tongguan Jinyuan reflects thin recorded data, not a reported failure.
This ordering reflects the opening dates and licence records WIKILIX holds as of today. Confirm any current membership on the CFFEX register itself before you rely on it.
10brokers on this list
Researched & ranked by the Wikilix team
- #2
GUODU FUTURES CO.,LTD
RegulatedChinaEst. 1992CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread59.0Score - #3
Tongguan Jinyuan Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1992CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread4.0Score - #4
CCB Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread28.1Score - #5
GELIN DAHUA FUTURES CO.,LTD
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread28.1Score - #6
Soochow Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993TPExRegulationLicenseSpread35.9Score - #7
Huaxi Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEX
RegulationLicenseSpread76.4Score - #8
GF Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread55.0Score - #9
CITIC Futures Co.,Ltd
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread45.3Score - #10
AVIC Futures Co., Ltd.
RegulatedChinaEst. 1993CFFEXRegulationLicenseSpread28.1Score
Opening dates do not change, so the order of these ten is steadier than a score-ranked list would be. What can change is the membership itself. A firm can lose its CFFEX standing, and a member with a 1990s founding date could surface as records are corrected, which would reshuffle the tail of this list. The ranking is rechecked as those records move.
If you came for a sense of the whole field rather than the oldest ten, the full CFFEX register on WIKILIX lists every member, flagged entries included, ordered by score. Readers comparing regulators often look next at the longest-established brokers under other authorities, and the same treatment exists for CySEC, the Seychelles FSA and the United States SEC. Because so many of these firms also hold a Hong Kong licence, the strongest CFFEX names by score overlap heavily with the SFC ranking, which is the page to read if current standing matters more to you than founding date.
Every figure here comes from the opening dates and licence records WIKILIX holds today. None of it replaces the CFFEX membership list itself, which is the source to confirm a firm's current status before you deposit or trade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
It shows the firm has held its exchange membership through three decades of rule changes, including the tightening that followed China's late-1990s futures reforms. That is a survival signal, not a performance one. It does not measure current financial strength, and several of the oldest firms here still carry low WIKILIX scores.
Two reasons. The ranking is capped at the ten oldest, so any firm founded after early 1993 falls outside it, and nine members carrying a suspicious-clone or offshore status were set aside. A large member founded in, say, 1996 is a real CFFEX firm but simply not among the ten longest-established here.
Yes. Several pair their CFFEX seat with a Hong Kong licence from the Securities and Futures Commission, including Guodu Futures, GF Futures and CITIC Futures. Huaxi Futures goes further, also holding a Monetary Authority of Singapore licence, and Soochow Futures additionally lists Taiwan's TPEx alongside its CFFEX membership.
This list cannot tell you that. It ranks firms by how long they have held a CFFEX licence, not by who they onboard, and most are institutional futures brokers focused on the mainland market. Whether any given firm accepts a client from your country depends on its own terms, which you would need to confirm with the firm directly.
CFFEX is the China Financial Futures Exchange, the onshore venue where mainland financial futures and options are traded and cleared, and WIKILIX classifies it as a tier-1 authority. Membership means a firm is cleared to operate on that exchange under Chinese rules. It says nothing about retail forex terms, spreads or trading platforms.
No. This list is ordered by opening date, not by WIKILIX score, and the two orderings differ sharply. Huaxi Futures scores 76.4 yet sits seventh by age, while Tongguan Jinyuan ranks third despite a score of 4.0. For a rating-first view you would want a ranking built on the score itself rather than on founding date.
Seventy-seven CFFEX members clear the ten-year threshold on record, and this page ranks the ten oldest of them. Sixty-two of the 77 opened before 2000, and 27 opened in 1993 or earlier, so the field of genuinely long-running firms is deep rather than a handful of outliers standing apart from everyone else.
Huatai Securities, listed here as HUA TAI, opened on 26 May 1991 and is the oldest CFFEX member in this ranking. Guodu Futures follows from January 1992, and Tongguan Jinyuan Futures from November 1992. The remaining seven all date to 1993, which is why only single months separate several places on the list.