Futures trading is growing in popularity among Australians looking to speculate on commodities, currencies, and other assets. Choosing the right platform, however, can be challenging.
In this guide, we compare the top futures brokers in Australia, their fees, features, and platforms, so you can find the one that best suits your needs, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced trader.
The best futures brokers in Australia
- Interactive Brokers: Best overall futures broker, with its Trader Workstation platform and the lowest per-contract commissions of the two.
- Totality (formerly Saxo Australia): Best for a wide-ranging futures offering through its Totality Edge platform.
Fees, rates and platform names verified against each broker’s own pricing pages in October 2026.
62% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
#1 Trader Workstation (Interactive Brokers)
Interactive Brokers at a glance
Trader Workstation (TWS), the proprietary trading platform of Interactive Brokers, is one of the most innovative trading platforms developed by a brokerage firm. It includes two subsets: the “TWS Mosaic”, which displays a fully customisable workspace, and the “Classic TWS”, where you can find more complex and advanced tools for experienced traders.
You get comprehensive order management, technical charts, watchlists, and other portfolio tools in a single view. You can organise your trading activity by asset classes and, at the same time, keep up to date with relevant market news impacting the markets. TWS offers powerful trading tools like ComboTrader, which helps traders create proprietary combination order strategies or choose from multiple templates with predefined programs to execute futures trades.
Interactive Brokers also offers a web-based Client Portal, a lighter version of TWS that lets you keep track of your portfolio performance and other essential features, plus IBKR Desktop and the IBKR Mobile app for trading on the go.
Australian residents deal with Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 98 166 929 568), which holds AFSL 453554 and is a participant of ASX, ASX 24 and Cboe Australia. That local membership is what gives you direct access to SPI and Australian rate futures alongside the US and European contracts.
Two things futures traders should know about IBKR’s pricing: first, commissions are charged on top of exchange and regulatory fees, so the headline rate is not the full cost. Second, IBKR pays interest on cash held in the securities segment of your account, not on cash held in the commodities segment, which is where futures margin sits.
Below we present a table with a selection of futures contracts available on IBKR and their respective commissions:
| Market | Contract | Tiered commission | Fixed commission |
| Australia | Mini SPI Futures | AUD 0.20 to AUD 0.75 | AUD 1.00 |
| Australia | Other ASX 24 Futures | AUD 1.00 to AUD 3.55 | AUD 5.00 (AUD 6.25 on BA, VW, WH) |
| United States | Standard Futures (for example ES) | USD 0.25 to USD 0.85 | USD 0.85 |
| United States | Micro and E-micro Futures (MES, MNQ, M2K) | USD 0.10 to USD 0.25 | USD 0.25 |
| Canada | S&P/TSX 60 Futures | CAD 0.30 to CAD 1.25 | CAD 2.40 |
| Germany | Mini DAX Futures | EUR 0.28 to EUR 0.50 | EUR 0.80 |
| Bitcoin | CME Bitcoin Futures (BRR) | USD 2.60 to USD 5.00 | USD 5.00 |
| Bitcoin | CME Micro Bitcoin Futures (MBT) | USD 0.43 to USD 0.85 | USD 0.85 |
| Currencies | E-Micro FX Futures | USD 0.05 to USD 0.15 | USD 0.15 |
Commissions from IBKR’s futures pricing page, September 2026. Tiered rates fall as your monthly contract volume rises. Exchange, regulatory and overnight position fees are charged on top of tiered commissions. Australian commissions are shown excluding GST.
IBKR publishes worked examples that show what a trade really costs. One ES futures contract on the tiered plan comes to USD 0.85 in execution fees plus USD 1.38 in exchange fees, for USD 2.24 in total. One Mini SPI contract comes to AUD 0.75 plus AUD 0.275 in exchange fees, for AUD 1.025 excluding GST (AUD 1.10 including GST). You can check the full schedule on IBKR’s futures pricing page.
#2 Totality Edge (formerly SaxoTraderGO)
Totality at a glance
62% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Saxo Capital Markets (Australia) rebranded to Totality Wealth Limited on 11 August 2025. It is the same company, with the same ABN (32 110 128 286) and the same licence (AFSL 280372). What changed is the ownership, the name, the website and the platform line-up. SCM DMA Pty Ltd, owned by the South African wealth technology group DMA, holds 80.1% of the business, and Saxo Bank A/S keeps 19.9% and remains its trading and technology provider. Any older guide pointing Australians to SaxoTraderGO is therefore out of date.
Totality offers three platforms: Totality Core, an all-in-one account command centre, Totality Edge, the flagship multi-device platform and the closest successor to SaxoTraderGO, and Totality Apex, a desktop trade station aimed at institutional-grade users. Assuming most people reading this have average knowledge of financial markets, we focus on Edge.
Edge is a web-based platform equipped with fundamental and technical analysis tools, an extensive charting package, performance analysis, a comprehensive account overview, and a user-friendly interface. It synchronises with the mobile app.
When you trade futures, you get access to an all-in-one screen where you can manage positions across a wide range of asset classes, currencies, and countries. Totality lists more than 250 futures contracts covering equity indices, commodities, currencies, interest rates and agriculture, on global exchanges that include CME Group and the Sydney Futures Exchange (ASX 24).
Commissions now depend on which of two client tiers you sit in, Classic or First, rather than the three tiers Saxo used to run. Moves between tiers happen at Totality’s discretion and take effect from the start of the following month.
| Contract denomination | Classic | First |
| AUD | AUD 3.00 | AUD 1.00 |
| USD | USD 3.00 | USD 1.00 |
| EUR | EUR 3.00 | EUR 1.00 |
| GBP | GBP 3.00 | GBP 1.00 |
| CAD | CAD 6.00 | CAD 2.00 |
| NZD | NZD 6.00 | NZD 2.00 |
| SGD | SGD 6.00 | SGD 2.00 |
| HKD | HKD 25.00 | HKD 10.00 |
Commissions are charged per contract on each trade, buy or sell, and exclude exchange fees. Source: Totality futures pricing page, September 2026.
Totality offers advanced tools for trading futures contracts. With futures spread trading, you can place orders to buy and sell multiple contracts at the same time. Depth Trader lets you see the buy and sell orders waiting to be executed, so you can manage your trades more effectively. You can also monitor real-time futures prices and trade directly from the exchange with the Time and Sales feature.
Two conditions are worth reading before you trade. Totality does not support physical delivery, so you have to close positions before expiry or first notice day, or it closes them for you at the prevailing market rate. And for European-listed futures, Totality holds client positions in a segregated omnibus account rather than a CCP-recognised indirect clearing arrangement, which it states does not provide the same level of protection. Both points are set out on its futures trading conditions page.
Interactive Brokers vs Totality
Now that we have outlined the capabilities offered by each platform, let’s compare how the two brokers stack up:
| Broker | Minimum deposit | Futures offering | Futures commission, US | Australian licence |
| Interactive Brokers | $0 | Agriculture, currency, energy, equity index, fixed income, metals, and volatility futures, including ASX 24 contracts | USD 0.25 to USD 0.85 per contract on the tiered plan, USD 0.85 fixed, plus exchange fees | Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd, ASIC AFSL 453554 |
| Totality | $0 | Equity indices, energy, metals, agriculture, rates and FX futures, 250+ contracts across CME, ICE and Eurex | USD 3.00 per contract on the Classic tier, USD 1.00 on First, plus exchange fees | Totality Wealth Limited, ASIC AFSL 280372 |
Both brokers also operate through global affiliates: IBKR through entities regulated by the SEC, CFTC, FINRA, FCA, the Central Bank of Ireland, CIRO in Canada, the SFC, SEBI, MAS and the MNB in Hungary, and Totality through Saxo Bank A/S, which acts as trading provider and as a custodian for international holdings.
Interactive Brokers is the cheaper of the two on commissions, by a wide margin on standard contracts, and it is a direct participant of ASX 24. It is well suited to both beginners and professionals looking for a large number of instruments and a secure broker. Australian residents keeping idle cash in AUD can also collect interest on it, currently 3.85% on balances between AUD 15,000 and AUD 150,000 and 4.10% above that, for accounts with a net asset value over USD 100,000. Smaller accounts receive a proportionally lower rate, and no interest is paid on the first AUD 15,000.
On the downside, if you are new to investing, the platform can feel complicated, with a lot of buttons and features, and the tiered pricing structure takes some reading.
Totality has a product offering broadly similar to IBKR’s, with noticeably higher commissions unless you reach the First tier. Its platforms arguably suit investors who want a cleaner interface and a single account covering stocks, ETFs, bonds, options and futures, rather than the cheapest possible execution.
A practical point for Australian residents: Totality only pays interest on uninvested cash above USD 100,000 (or the equivalent), at a rate scaled to your balance, and it does not publish the headline rates in its help articles, so it is worth asking before you park a large balance there.
You can check the current schedules on IBKR’s futures pricing page and Totality’s futures pricing page.
What to check before choosing a futures broker in Australia
Commission is the number brokers advertise, but it is rarely the only number that decides your costs. Four things deserve as much attention as the headline rate:
- Exchange fees on top: Both brokers quote commissions excluding exchange fees. On one ES contract at IBKR, the exchange fee (USD 1.38) is larger than the commission (USD 0.85).
- GST: Australian commissions are usually quoted excluding GST. At IBKR, one SPI 200 round turn on the fixed plan is AUD 10.00 excluding GST and AUD 11.00 including it.
- ASX 24 access: if you want SPI 200, Australian bank bills or 3 and 10 year Treasury bond futures, check that the broker offers ASX 24 contracts rather than only overseas ones.
- Where your margin sits: cash held as futures margin generally does not earn interest, even at brokers that pay interest on uninvested cash.
What 10 round turns a month cost in commission
To see how the pricing models compare in practice, here is the commission on 10 round turns a month (20 contracts) of the E-mini S&P 500 (ES) and of the Mini SPI 200. Exchange fees and GST generally come on top.
| Broker and plan | 10 ES round turns | 10 Mini SPI round turns |
| Interactive Brokers, tiered | USD 17.00 | AUD 15.00 |
| Interactive Brokers, fixed | USD 17.00 | AUD 20.00 |
| Totality, Classic | USD 60.00 | AUD 60.00 |
| Totality, First | USD 20.00 | AUD 20.00 |
Our calculations based on IBKR’s futures commissions and Totality’s futures pricing, October 2026. IBKR tiered rates for up to 1,000 contracts a month.
The main exception is IBKR’s fixed plan for ASX 24 contracts, which passes no exchange or regulatory fees through. At this level of activity, a Classic client at Totality pays roughly three to four times more in commission than an IBKR client, and the First tier narrows the gap.
Bottom line
To sum it up, here’s a brief overview of our findings:
- Interactive Brokers: Best overall
- Totality: Best for a wide-ranging futures offering
With our comparison complete, here is what you need to do to get started on trading futures:
- Find a suitable broker: Make sure the broker holds an Australian financial services licence and accepts residents of Australia. Consider the fees and market access if you are interested in trading niche futures contracts.
- Open an account and deposit money: After deciding which trading platform to use, you go through the account opening process and deposit money.
- Start trading: Having considered the pros and cons of each broker, and after going through the account opening process, you can access the futures market. Remember that futures are leveraged products, so losses can exceed your initial deposit.
We hope this post addressed some of your concerns. Do your research to find the best investing strategy for you.
