#1
Marex Group
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2005FCA
Regulation
License
Spread
91.3Score
Forty-eight brokers in the WIKILIX database hold a registration with the National Futures Association, and this page lists every one of them, ordered by overall score. The NFA is the self-regulatory body for the United States futures and retail forex market, so its member roll is the shortest honest answer to which firms are cleared to take US forex business. Thirty-four of the 48 carry a clean regulation status in our records. The other fourteen do not, and the table below shows exactly which.
This ranking is built from licence records rather than picked by hand. A broker joins the moment our data shows an active NFA registration and leaves when that record changes, so the count keeps itself current. Marex Group leads on a score of 91.3, ahead of ED&F Man Capital Markets at 85.3 and Paxos Trust Company at 82.2. The median score across all 48 is 57.8, and the figures fall to 44.0 at the foot of the list.
| Broker | Score | WIKILIX status | Opened | Other licences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marex | 91.3 | Clean | 2005 | FCA, SFC |
| ED&F Man | 85.3 | Clean | 2012 | SFC, FCA, DFSA, SEC |
| Paxos | 82.2 | Clean | 2012 | SEC, MAS, FCA |
| tastytrade | 81.2 | Suspicious clone | 2015 | FINRA, SEC, ASIC |
| Straits Financial | 80.9 | Scam | 2010 | SFC, MAS, BAPPEBTI |
| DA International | 79.5 | Clean | 2011 | SFC |
| Moomoo | 76.1 | Suspicious clone | 2021 | MAS |
| ATC Brokers | 73.0 | Suspicious clone | 2005 | FCA |
What NFA registration does and does not tell you
Registration means a firm has met the association's membership and disclosure requirements and can be looked up on the public BASIC database. It does not rank the firm, and it does not stop WIKILIX recording a separate concern. Fourteen brokers here fall outside a clean status: nine are flagged as suspicious clones, two for exceeding their stated scope, one as offshore, and one, Straits Financial Group, as a scam despite its score of 80.9. A fourteenth, Prime Codex, has no status recorded at all. Three of the eight highest-scoring firms carry a flag, which is the clearest sign that a high score here is not a clean bill of health.
The register also crosses borders. NFA oversight applies to United States futures and forex activity, yet only twenty-two of these firms are headquartered in the country. Marex is a London group, Straits Financial is based in Hong Kong, and newer names such as IM Markets and Wisdom are registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Domicile is where a company is incorporated, not where its NFA-facing business runs.
The register at a glance
- 29 hold more than one regulator, 19 hold NFA alone. FOREX.com and OANDA each list seven authorities, while most of the smaller US futures shops carry NFA and nothing else.
- Nine firms predate the year 2000. Standard Bank traces to 1862 and E*TRADE Futures to 1982, while IM Markets and Mensa Finance both opened in 2023.
- Recorded leverage runs from 1:1 to 1:1000. OANDA's US entity sits at 1:50, the NFA ceiling for major currency pairs, while offshore-registered entities such as Ironbeam and ALPFOREX reach 1:1000.
What the NFA framework requires
NFA members trading retail forex must meet minimum capital rules and keep customer money in segregated accounts. They also submit to the association's arbitration and enforcement process. The number that matters most to a US trader is leverage: the NFA caps retail forex at 50:1 on major pairs and 20:1 on minors, far below the 1:500 and 1:1000 figures shown against the offshore entities on this list. A firm can hold an NFA registration for its US arm and still market much higher leverage through a separate offshore company, which is why the leverage column here has to be read next to the domicile.
Before you open an account with any of these firms
- Confirm the exact entity you are signing with. An NFA registration covers the US member firm, not automatically the offshore arm that advertises higher leverage.
- Look the firm up on the NFA BASIC database by name or NFA ID and read its regulatory action history, not only its membership status.
- Check which entity would actually hold your account, because that decides whether the 50:1 retail forex cap applies to you.
- Treat a WIKILIX status flag as a reason to dig further before funding.
This list reflects NFA registrations recorded in the WIKILIX database as of today. It does not measure spreads or execution quality, and it says nothing about whether a given firm accepts clients from your country. Confirm any registration on the NFA's own record before you deposit.
52brokers on this list
Researched & ranked by the Wikilix team
- #2
Market Securities
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2007FCA
RegulationLicenseSpread89.7Score - #3
Chatham Financial Corp.
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1991NFA
RegulationLicenseSpread88.7Score - #4
ED&F Man Capital Markets
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2012SFCRegulationLicenseSpread85.3Score - #5
Paxos Trust Company, LLC
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 2012SEC
RegulationLicenseSpread82.2Score - #6
Griffin Markets
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2011AMF
RegulationLicenseSpread82.1Score - #7
tastytrade, Inc
Suspicious CloneNorthern Mariana IslandsEst. 2015FINRA
RegulationLicenseSpread81.2Score - #8
Straits Financial Group
ScamHong KongEst. 2010SFC
RegulationLicenseSpread80.9Score - #9
DA International
RegulatedHong KongEst. 2011SFCRegulationLicenseSpread79.5Score - #10
Moomoo Securities Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Suspicious CloneMalaysiaEst. 2021MASRegulationLicenseSpread76.1Score - #11
ATC Brokers Limited
Suspicious CloneUnited KingdomEst. 2005FCARegulationLicenseSpread73.0Score - #12
E*TRADE Futures LLC
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1982NFARegulationLicenseSpread70.2Score
This register is rebuilt from licence data, so it shows NFA registrations on the day you read it rather than a list edited by hand. When a firm's NFA record changes, its row changes with it, and the fourteen flagged entries will shift as our status labels are reviewed.
To compare regulators rather than individual firms, the neighbouring rankings cover the other authorities many of these brokers also answer to. The FINRA and SEC lists sit alongside the NFA on the US securities side, while the FCA in the United Kingdom and ASIC in Australia license many of the same multi-regulated groups. Traders weighing a Canadian option can read the CIRO register, and anyone judging standing over jurisdiction can compare the tier-1 ranking, since the NFA is itself a tier-1 authority.
Whichever firm you shortlist, verify its registration on the NFA BASIC database before funding an account. A page like this is a starting map, not a replacement for the regulator's own record.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
For US retail forex the NFA caps leverage at 50:1 on major currency pairs and 20:1 on minors, and OANDA's US entity is recorded here at 1:50. Higher figures on this list, up to 1:1000 for firms like Ironbeam and ALPFOREX, come from offshore-registered entities, not from the NFA-regulated US business.
Twenty-nine of the 48 are recorded with two or more regulators, while nineteen hold NFA as their only recorded licence. FOREX.com and OANDA each list seven authorities. The single-licence firms are mostly smaller US futures brokers that operate under NFA and nothing else.
Because domicile and licence are different things. NFA oversight applies to a firm's US futures and forex activity, but the parent can be incorporated anywhere. Marex is headquartered in London and Straits Financial in Hong Kong, and both still hold an NFA registration. Only twenty-two of the 48 are actually headquartered in the United States.
This list cannot tell you. It is built from where each firm is licensed and domiciled, not from which countries a firm accepts clients from, and that second question is not in our data. Several of these groups run separate offshore entities for non-US clients. Check each broker's own terms and the entity you would actually be onboarded to.
Not on its own. Registration shows a firm met membership and disclosure requirements, but it is not a rating. Fourteen of the 48 brokers here fall outside a clean status in our records, and three of the eight highest-scoring firms carry a warning flag. Registration is a starting check, not a verdict on the firm.
Marex Group, at 91.3, a London-headquartered firm that also holds FCA and SFC licences and opened in 2005. Behind it sit ED&F Man Capital Markets at 85.3 and Paxos Trust Company at 82.2. The median score across the full register is 57.8, so the top three sit well above the middle of the pack.
In practice, the ones registered with the NFA, since a firm must hold that registration (and CFTC oversight) to take US retail forex business. On this list the US-headquartered names include OANDA, FOREX.com, E*TRADE Futures and GAIN Capital. Twenty-two of the 48 are domiciled in the United States; the rest hold NFA registration from abroad.
Forty-eight, as of today. Thirty-four of them carry a clean regulation status in our records and the other fourteen do not: nine are flagged as suspicious clones, two for exceeding scope, one as offshore, one as a scam, and one has no status recorded. The list is generated from licence data, so the count changes on its own as registrations do.