Best Brokers for trading on Stock Exchanges in 2025

The article describes the criteria and provides tables comparing services, commissions, and brokerage services for active investors, speculators, and traders using robotic trading systems and high-frequency trading algorithms.        

• 1. About Trading and Traders
• 2. What Matters Most for Traders?
• 3. How to choose Instruments for Exchange Trading?
• 4. How to choose a Broker?
• 5. How we compared brokers
• Compare from platforms, instruments, and products
• Compare from margin loans, trading commissions for traders, pros and cons
• 6. Conclusions
• 7. How Does Direct Market Access (DMA) Work?
• 8. What Are the Advantages of Trading Over Investing?
• 9. What's the Difference Between Derivatives and Spot Markets?
• 10. What Is Margin Trading via a Broker?
• 11. What Are the Benefits of Trading Futures and Options on the Exchange?

   

If you have 12 minutes, read the full article.

If you don't have time, here are the final broker comparison tables for traders:

• Table 1. Broker conditions for deposit/withdrawal currencies, platforms, instruments, and products for traders
• Table 2. Broker conditions for margin loans, trading commissions for traders, pros and cons, services

1. What Is Trading?

Trading is a method of exchange trading using automated and robotic algorithms of trading systems on broker platforms.

A trader seeks to profit from the difference between the buying and selling price of an exchange asset.

A trader differs from an investor in that the number and frequency of trades in their system are significantly higher.

Most trading systems use trading robots—programs designed for full or partial automation of order placement and trade execution.

For a broker, a trader is a valuable client! A trader executes more trades, uses borrowed funds, pays for services, and generates more commissions for the broker. Thus, traders are entitled to demand high-quality service.

Brokers are willing to offer the best rates and conditions to high-volume traders. Therefore, it is essential for traders to analyze broker services comprehensively: their capabilities, quality, and cost.

2. What Matters Most for a Trader?

The most important thing for a trader is their trading system (strategy). Most strategies are based on robotic trading algorithms (semi-automated and fully automated).

A trading robot processes market data and, depending on the trading algorithm, sends trading orders to the exchange via a broker.

Trading algorithms are programmed within trading platforms and terminals. These platforms execute traders' algorithms on the broker’s servers.

A broker must meet the following trader needs:

• Provide access to popular trading platforms and terminals
• Have reliable exchange access infrastructure with backup servers
• Provide analysis and data-processing services for strategy development and testing in convenient interfaces
• Offer low margin loan rates and low trade commissions
• Provide competent technical support

Table: Brokers' conditions for depositing/withdrawing money, terminals, instruments, products for traders working with clients from Europe, America, Asia, East and CIS.

More details about European, American and Asian brokers are described in our article: "Best foreign stock brokers for investors and traders"

More information about foreign stock brokers for investors and traders

3. How to Choose Instruments for Exchange Trading?

The most popular types of trading instruments among investors and traders around the world are: Stocks, bonds, currencies, raw materials, energy, metals, cryptocurrencies.

First, determine your trading strategy. Understand that trading involves:

1. Trade frequency (intraday trading is typical for traders; holding assets for several days is speculative investing, and more than a month is long-term investing).

2. Number of instruments. Trading multiple instruments intraday is difficult. Start with one liquid instrument.

3. Timeframe (e.g., 5-minute or 30-minute charts).

• If scalping on 5-10 minutes, use one instrument
• If intraday trading on hourly charts, use 2-3 instruments
• If holding for several days, 3-5 instruments are acceptable

Lower timeframes mean fewer instruments should be used.

4. Instrument smoothness (avoid those with sharp price spikes).

5. Avoid trendy, aggressive, or newly listed assets (e.g., low-liquidity stocks, crypto).

6. Avoid correlated assets (e.g., USD/EUR and USD/GBP).

7. Don’t start with commodities like oil or gas—they’re complex and dominated by professional traders.

8. The specific exchange doesn’t matter (Domestic Exchange your country or foreign exchange). Understand time zones, fees, and access risks.

9. Try different instruments across your Stock Exchange sections:

• Currency: start with RUB/CNY
• Equities: try liquid stocks like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Google and other popular corporation
• Derivatives: try liquid futures like Si (USD/CNY) or GD (Gold) or ETF

10. Decide whether to use borrowed funds (margin trading). Beginners should avoid leverage.

In summary, start with liquid stocks your national Exchange, then explore other instruments to learn their behavior and reaction to events. Choose instruments that are liquid, shortable, and usable in REPO.

You can find a full list of marginable instruments on the official Exchange websites and Brokers.

4. How to Choose a Broker for Trading?

Selection Criteria

• Reliability and speed of connection to the exchange
• Features of broker trading platforms and apps
• Brokerage commission size
• Margin loan rates
• Broker services for robotic and HFT trading
• Conditions for direct access to exchange servers (DMA)

Choosing Based on Trading Strategy

If your strategy doesn't rely on HFT and doesn't require DMA, focus on:

• Capabilities of the broker’s platforms
• Integration with services for algorithm development and testing
• Margin loan rates

If your strategy involves HFT or scalping, prioritize:

• Connection reliability and speed
• DMA conditions
• Brokerage commissions
• Margin loan rates (usually minimal for such clients)

5. How we compared brokers for traders

We compared brokers by commissions, services, conditions, advantages and disadvantages:

• Table 1. Broker conditions for deposit/withdrawal currencies, platforms, instruments, and products for traders
• Table 2. Broker conditions for margin loans, trading commissions for traders, pros and cons, services

Rating stock brokers by services, commissions, advantages and disadvantages

6. Conclusions

The best brokers for trading are those that:
• provide access to trading terminals popular among traders (Metatrader 4 and 5, CQG, Tiger Trade and other terminals that have their own community and independent developers)
• brokers that work with any currencies, allowing you to replenish and withdraw money from accounts without restrictions in the shortest possible time
• brokers that charge minimal commissions for frequent transactions
• brokers that have reliable access to the largest number of trading instruments on all exchanges popular with traders
• brokers that have licenses from national regulators with the ability to insure client accounts
• brokers registered in countries or territories with a preferential tax regime

7. How does direct market access (DMA) for trading robots on stock exchange work?

What is DMA?

Direct Market Access — a set of services that allows orders to be sent directly to the exchange and receive market data directly from trading platforms, bypassing the broker's trading systems.

Main advantages:

• High order execution speed and market data access — hundreds or even thousands of times faster than standard broker connections (less than 50 microseconds to access the exchange)
• High fault tolerance for a large number of daily transactions.
• Deployment of your trading software on the broker's virtual machine in the stock exchange data center or hosting your own server in the exchange rack, allowing data send/receive speed up to 5000 times higher than standard connection

Types of server placement in data centers of Stock Exchange

1. Colocation

Intended for traders with their own trading servers. In this case, we assist in correctly setting up network connections, provide an internet channel and dedicated lines to trading platforms from your server.

Hosting a DMA robot in exchange colocation zone offers the following benefits:

• Market access speed — less than 50 microseconds.
  Virtual machines and dedicated servers connect directly to the exchange trading system (from the free zone, the connection goes through intermediate servers exchange).
• Access to markets via all available trade protocols.
  As well as accelerated market data feed frequency, full order book, and other services.
• Guaranteed reliability and fault tolerance of trading systems.
  The fault tolerance level is comparable to TIER 3 data centers. All equipment has hot redundancy.
• Option to install your own equipment or rent equipment from a broker.
  You can rent a server or a virtual machine with the required parameters.

2. Renting a virtual machine in the colocation zone of stock exchange —

the first step towards high-frequency trading (HFT). This server is recommended for use with direct access protocols.

• Direct 10 Gbps channel to the exchange.
• Ability to select a virtual machine with any configuration.
• Server location as close as possible to stock exchange trading system.

You can choose one of the base configurations or order a custom virtual machine. Leave a callback request and we will contact you shortly.

The most favorable conditions for connecting to exchange servers are provided by Just2Trade and Interactive brokers.

See more detailed descriptions in site of brokers

8. What is the advantage of active trading over long-term investing on stock exchanges?

Simply put, speculation can earn more and faster than long-term investing.
The essence of active trading is to make frequent buy and sell transactions based on price fluctuations of an asset (1–3–5%) over a short period (up to 1–2–3 months), including with the use of borrowed funds from a broker, in order to make a profit greater than simply buying and holding the asset waiting for it to rise due to fundamental reasons.

For example, an investor buys Apple shares for 1 million dollars.
The investor expects the company to generate revenue from sales and distribute profits as dividends, leading to stock price growth, allowing the investor to eventually sell the shares at a higher price. The problem is that the waiting period for such growth is unpredictable. If, for example, Apple loses a key market and its stock price falls by 50%, it could take years for the price to recover.
Thus, speculation (active trading) becomes the opposite of long-term investing.

A speculative strategy can be implemented on two exchange segments:

• Stock market (via frequent buy and sell transactions with no time limits)
• Derivatives market (via frequent trades of futures contracts on stocks, commodities, currency — limited by contract expiration)

For example, with Apple shares:

1. On the Stock market, a trader can trade Apple shares intraday using broker-provided margin (one-day loan is usually free).

• If the share price rises by 1–2%, the trader quickly closes the position with profit.
• If the share price falls, the trader closes the position with a loss and waits for a new trend to open a new long or short position.

If Apple drops another 50%, the trader can repay all margin loans and wait indefinitely for a price rebound (i.e., turn into a long-term investor, freezing funds until better times).

2. On the Derivatives market of Stocks Exchanges, the risks and mechanics are different.

The trader can buy a futures contract on Apple stock, saving on broker fees since derivatives market commissions are significantly lower.
But this also comes with risk.
Most futures have a 3-month lifespan (quarterly contracts).
If by expiration date the stock price (and thus the futures price) has dropped 50%, the trader cannot wait out the loss — the contract will expire, and the exchange will return only 50% of the value. In other words, you can't hold onto a paper loss like on the stock market.

9. What is the difference in trading strategies between the Derivatives Market and the Stock (Spot) Market for investors and traders?

The difference lies in commissions and the time horizon of trades.

If a trader buys a contract for a stock at 1000 units, and by expiration in 3 months it drops to 800 units, the trader will incur a 20% loss regardless of future price movements.

If an investor buys the same stock at 1000 units and it drops to 800 units, they can continue holding it, waiting for the price to recover above 1000 units without needing to sell at a loss.

Pros and cons of the Derivatives Market (futures and options)

So why is the Derivatives Market so attractive for traders?

From a commission cost standpoint, it's 5–7 times cheaper to trade on the Derivatives Market. When buying a contract, the trader only needs to provide a portion (margin) of the full value — typically 10% — which effectively acts as an interest-free loan from the exchange.

Example with corporation "McDonald`s" shares at 300 USD:

If a trader buys a futures contract for 30000 USD, the margin requirement of stock exchange (Initial margin or deposited margin) might be 6000 USD (20%). Commission: ~7 USD to the exchange + 1 USD to the broker = total 8 USD.

If an investor buys 100 McDonalds shares for 30000 USD on the stock market, the entire amount is blocked. Commission broker: 15 USD (~0.05%) + possible service fees = ~20–30 USD.

So in terms of fees alone, derivatives trading is 2–4 times cheaper than stock market trading.

But there’s a downside to trading with partial margin. If McDonald`s stock drops 20%, the exchange will increase the required margin for futures contracts by ~20–25%.

That means the margin for one futures contract may rise from 6000 to 7500 USD.
If the trader doesn’t provide the additional margin, the broker may forcibly close the position and lock in the loss .

That leads to a logical question: how to combine the low commission benefits of the Derivatives Market with no expiration and access to leverage?
The answer: Margin trading using broker-provided funds.

10. What is margin trading through a broker?

It’s important to understand that broker loans are secured — they’re issued against collateral in your account.

Margin is the collateral blocked by the broker. If the trader cannot repay the loan, the broker can liquidate the margin to recover the funds.

Leverage is the ratio of your deposit to the trade size. You must have your own funds in the account to use leverage. The required deposit depends on the broker.

Margin is expressed as a percentage of the trade. A 20% margin means you can open a trade with only 20% of the full value. A 50% margin requires half of the trade value to be deposited.

How it works:

Example 1: In a rising market, you buy securities with your funds and borrowed funds from the broker. This increases potential profit — and risk — if prices fall.

Example 2: In a falling market, you short-sell securities you don’t own, aiming to buy them back cheaper. If the price drops, you profit. If it rises, you incur a loss. This service is paid (i.e., interest or fees may apply).

11. What is the essence and advantage of trading futures and options on the exchange?

Derivatives (contracts, futures) are instruments built on top of an underlying asset and have a fixed expiration date. On that date, the contract price aligns with the underlying asset.

The underlying asset may exist indefinitely. Its price — be it a stock, currency, or commodity — fluctuates continuously.

Derivatives follow the price of the underlying asset but only until expiration. The main advantage: you can buy a contract by depositing only a fraction (e.g., 10%) of the asset’s value and paying lower fees.

This is rooted in the original purpose of futures — to lock in prices for goods in the future and avoid risks like price hikes, delivery issues, or currency fluctuations.

Example: You want to buy a product in another country for 1000 CNY.

The current exchange rate is 1000 CNY to 100 USD. So the product costs 100 USD. You sell 100 USD to buy yuan and make a 50% prepayment. But during shipment, the dollar strengthens and now you need 1200 CNY. The deal becomes unprofitable. Who covers the loss — you, the client, the supplier?

To avoid such currency risks, currency futures contracts were invented — tools for hedging.

You could also just buy CNY on the spot market. But futures are cheaper and require less upfront capital.

For example, a 1000 CNY futures contract might only require a 10 USD margin (10%). This acts as a free loan for the life of the contract — usually 3 months.

This allows buyers to secure a future price without fully paying upfront.

Speculators then entered this market — taking advantage of low fees to profit from price movements.

This led to the development of the Derivatives Market, which now includes:

• Hedgers — participants managing risks in real-world transactions
• Speculators — traders aiming to profit on price moves
• Investors seeking to avoid asset custody risks with synthetic ownership via futures
• Other market participants

More information about foreign stock brokers for investors and traders