Brokers, platforms and order types
Broker, platform, data
Three pieces work together:
- The broker holds your account and sends your orders to the exchange.
- The platform is the software you chart and place orders in. Futures traders commonly use platforms such as NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView-connected brokers, or Rithmic-based platforms.
- Market data is the live price feed, which may carry a monthly fee.
With a prop firm, the firm usually decides which platforms and data feeds you can use. Compare costs, reliability and the order types you need before you commit; we don't recommend any particular one.
The order types you'll use
- Market order: buy or sell now at the best available price. It fills immediately but not at a guaranteed price. The gap between the price you expected and the one you got is called slippage.
- Limit order: buy or sell only at your price or better. You get a guaranteed price, but it may never fill.
- Stop order: becomes a market order once price reaches your level. Traders use stops to exit a losing trade automatically. In fast markets a stop can fill worse than its level.
- Stop-limit order: becomes a limit order at your level, so you avoid slippage but risk not being filled at all.
- Bracket (OCO) order: an entry with a stop and a target attached. When one exit fills, the other cancels (one-cancels-other). Brackets make sure every trade has a stop from the moment it's opened.
Practice the mechanics
Before trading real money, place every order type in a simulator until it's automatic: how to enter, how to move a stop, how to flatten everything fast. Order mistakes (the wrong size, a missing stop) are some of the most expensive errors beginners make, and they're entirely avoidable.