Tradovate: CFTC licence 0309379

Tradovate offers exchange traded futures and options on futures. Its commission schedule covers standard contracts, micro and CME E-nano index contracts, and nano and event contracts, and the broker publishes a separate product page for event contracts.

Tradovate publishes no leverage ratio. Futures are traded on margin instead, and the broker quotes its day trading margins per contract: 10 USD on nano contracts, 25 USD on smalls, 50 USD on micros and 500 USD on standard futures. A lower margin requirement means a larger position for the same deposit, so risk rises as the margin falls.

Tradovate's main platform is its own cloud based terminal, available in a browser, as Windows and Mac downloads and as iOS and Android apps, with a documented REST API for programmatic access. NinjaTrader Desktop, Web and Mobile are included with every pricing plan at no licence fee, and TradingView can be connected as a premium integration that synchronises accounts, orders, positions and margin and allows orders to be sent from TradingView charts. Tradovate offers no MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or cTrader access.

Tradovate charges a commission per side, per contract, and the rate depends on which of its three plans a client holds. The Free plan has no monthly fee and charges 0.39 USD per side on a micro or CME E-nano index contract, 1.29 USD on a standard contract and 0.20 USD on a nano or event contract. The Monthly plan costs 99 USD a month and cuts those to 0.29, 0.99 and 0.15 USD, while the Lifetime plan costs 1,499 USD once or four instalments of 499 USD and cuts them to 0.09, 0.59 and 0.05 USD. Exchange, clearing and NFA fees are charged on top on every plan.

Tradovate is reached by phone on 1 (844) 283-3100 or (312) 283-3100, by email at support@tradovate.com, and through its help centre and contact portal. Live phone cover runs from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM US Central time, an emergency trade desk is staffed 24 hours a day five days a week, and a virtual assistant is available at any time inside the web and desktop apps. Support is offered in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Tradovate publishes no minimum deposit. Its pricing page states that the account minimum is any funding amount, so no particular sum is required to open any of the three plans. The only published floors belong to individual funding methods, where an ACH deposit must be between 5 and 5,000 USD. What actually governs trading size is margin, with day trading margins quoted per contract from 10 USD on nano contracts to 500 USD on standard futures.

Tradovate's funding hub advertises four methods: debit card, digital wallet through Apple Pay or Google Pay, ACH bank transfer and wire transfer. A mailed check route is published separately for clients in the United States. Debit card, digital wallet and ACH deposits are capped at 5,000 USD, which the method pages describe as a daily limit and the funding hub as a per transaction limit. Withdrawals are returned by ACH or wire only and must go to an account in the client's own name, with a wire withdrawal costing 30 USD to a US bank or 30 units of the sending currency internationally; credit cards, PayPal and cryptocurrencies are not accepted.

Tradovate is the trading name of NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC, which states on the broker's own site that it is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a futures commission merchant and is a National Futures Association member under NFA ID 0309379. That company accepts orders and carries client futures accounts, and it sits alongside NinjaTrader, LLC under the parent NinjaTrader Group, LLC. Regulatory standing is not the same as safety: the broker's own risk disclosure states that an investor may lose all or more than the initial investment.