#1
Marex Group
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2005FCA
Regulation
License
Spread
91.3Score
Thirty-four brokers in the WIKILIX database hold a registration with the National Futures Association and carry no warning label of their own. The list runs in score order, from Marex Group at 91.3 down to Tapbit at 44, with a median of 54.2.
The number this list started from is 48. That is how many brokers in the database record an NFA registration, and fourteen of them carry a status label that keeps them off the page. Nine are recorded as suspicious clones. Two are marked as having exceeded the scope of a licence, one as offshore, one as a scam report, and one carries no status at all.
Sixteen of the 34 are domiciled in the United States. The other eighteen are not, and that is the first thing worth understanding about this registration: it is a US credential held by firms all over the world, not a description of where a company sits. Marex Group and ED&F Man Capital Markets are both domiciled in the United Kingdom. DA International is in Hong Kong.
| Domicile | Brokers |
|---|---|
| United States | 16 |
| United Kingdom | 4 |
| China | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 2 |
| Eight other jurisdictions, one each | 8 |
Age is the other axis worth reading here. Every one of the 34 has a recorded opening date, and eight of them predate 2000. Standard Bank goes back to 1862, Societe Generale to 1864, StoneX One to 1866 and Commerzbank to 1870. Seventeen opened before 2010. The two newest, IM Markets and Mensa Finance, both date from 2023.
How we built this list
Two stored filters, which is why the page rebuilds itself when the underlying records change. The first keeps brokers holding a licence recorded against the National Futures Association. The second keeps only those whose WIKILIX status label reads regulation, our own field, meaning no scam report, clone warning, offshore flag or over-operation note has been recorded against the firm. Sorting is by WIKILIX score, highest first.
That score is a single composite figure recorded against each broker in our database. It is not a measure of trading conditions and not a user rating, so a page ordered by it is ordered by that one number and nothing else. Scores here run from 44 to 91.3. Twenty of the 34 hold licences from two or more separate authorities, and sixteen hold at least one further tier-1 licence beyond the NFA registration itself, tier read from our regulator records rather than assumed.
What NFA registration covers, and what it does not
The National Futures Association is the self-regulatory body for the US derivatives industry, operating under the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Its membership categories are wide. A futures commission merchant, an introducing broker and a retail foreign exchange dealer are all NFA members, and they do very different things for very different customers. That breadth is why Commerzbank and Standard Bank appear here alongside FOREX.com and OANDA.
Every registration is checkable. The NFA publishes its own register at NFA BASIC, and the CFTC keeps a separate record of registered firms at cftc.gov. Our records hold a maximum leverage figure for 21 of the 34 brokers, topping out at 1:1000 for four of them. That figure is recorded against the firm rather than against a specific account or entity, so read it as our record of the company, not as what a US-registered arm offers a US client.
What to check before you open an account
- Look the firm up on NFA BASIC by name, confirm the registration is current, and read the disciplinary history while you are there.
- Check that the legal entity named on your account agreement is the registered one. Several firms here are recorded under a group or holding company name, GAIN Capital Holdings Inc among them.
- Confirm separately whether the firm offers retail forex to residents of your country. The registration does not answer that, and neither does this page.
- Read the status label on the broker's own WIKILIX page before you deposit, since that label is updated as our records change.
What this list does not tell you
It carries no spread or minimum deposit figures, because we hold none. It says nothing about execution quality or how quickly a withdrawal clears. It does not tell you whether any of these 34 firms will accept you as a client, which turns on the entity, the product and where you live. And it reflects licences recorded in the WIKILIX database as of today: confirm any registration on the NFA's own register before you send money.
37brokers 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
DA International
RegulatedHong KongEst. 2011SFCRegulationLicenseSpread79.5Score - #8
E*TRADE Futures LLC
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1982NFARegulationLicenseSpread70.2Score - #9
GAIN Global Markets, Inc.
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 2006ASICRegulationLicenseSpread68.6Score - #10
J V COMMODITY PVT. LTD.
RegulatedIndiaEst. 2002NFA
RegulationLicenseSpread68.2Score - #11
OANDA Corporation
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 2011ASICRegulationLicenseSpread65.1Score - #12
CAPITAL TRADING GROUP
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 2006NFARegulationLicenseSpread65.0Score
Everything above is generated from stored filters, so keeping it current does not depend on anyone editing it. A broker that gains an NFA registration appears here on the next rebuild. One that picks up a clone warning or a scam report in our records drops off the same way. The written figures in the copy are refreshed when the count moves.
Two follow-on questions have rankings of their own. For the United Kingdom, FCA regulated brokers applies the same status filter to Financial Conduct Authority licences, and for Australia ASIC regulated brokers does the same. Reading two of them next to each other is the quickest way to see how often one firm turns up under three or four different authorities, which twenty of the brokers on this page do.
If you are researching a specific company rather than a jurisdiction, its own broker page carries more than the card in the grid: the licence records behind the count, the recorded domicile, and the status label. Start there before you start comparing.
One standing caveat. Registration status changes faster than any database updates it, and the NFA's register is the authority on whether a firm is a member today. Check it there, and check the entity name on whatever agreement you are asked to sign.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
It rebuilds from the stored query, so it changes whenever the underlying records do rather than on a schedule. A broker that gains an NFA registration joins the grid, and one that picks up a clone or scam label in our data drops out of it. The figures written into the copy are refreshed when the count moves.
Twenty of the 34. Sixteen hold at least one further tier-1 licence beyond the NFA registration, with the FCA, ASIC, SFC and FINRA the most common companions. StoneX One and OANDA each carry seven separate authorities in our records. Our regulator list is deduplicated, so this counts authorities rather than individual licences.
Because NFA membership is not limited to retail forex shops. Commerzbank, Societe Generale and Standard Bank all hold an NFA registration in our records, alongside retail-facing names such as FOREX.com and OANDA. The filter behind this page selects on the licence rather than the business model, so an institutional firm and a retail broker sit in the same grid.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the federal regulator for US derivatives markets. The National Futures Association is the self-regulatory organisation operating under it, so firms register with the CFTC and hold NFA membership. You can check both independently: the NFA runs the BASIC register, and the CFTC publishes its own record of registered firms.
No. It says the firm is a member of the National Futures Association in one of its categories, which range from introducing brokers to futures commission merchants. Sixteen of the 34 firms here are not even domiciled in the United States. Who a broker accepts, and for which products, is set by the individual entity and is not recorded in our database.
Standard Bank, with a recorded opening date of 1862. Societe Generale follows at 1864, StoneX One at 1866 and Commerzbank at 1870. Eight of the 34 opened before 2000 and seventeen before 2010, which makes this list older on average than a retail forex list usually is. Every one of the 34 has a recorded opening date.
Thirty-four. They are the brokers whose WIKILIX status label reads regulation, drawn from the 48 in the database with an NFA registration on file. The other fourteen were held back by that label: nine are recorded as suspicious clones, two as having exceeded a licence, one as offshore, one as a scam report, and one has no status recorded.
Forty-eight brokers in the WIKILIX database hold a registration with the National Futures Association, the self-regulatory body for US derivatives, and 34 of those carry no warning label. That is the closest honest answer our records support. Whether a particular firm is permitted to offer retail forex to US residents is a separate permission, and it is not a field we hold.