Our premier recommended trading platform - offered FREE to Discount Trading clients with some of the lowest day-trading margins and direct market access. As a Rithmic futures broker, Discount Trading pairs R|Trader Pro with some of the lowest commissions in the industry, fast order routing, and full API and FIX access.
If you are seeking one of the best platforms for futures trading, we typically recommend Rithmic R|Trader Pro. At Discount Trading, we are able to offer this platform to our clients with some of the lowest margins for free. If you want the lowest margin rates offered at Discount, this is the platform for you.
Multi-Monitor Support - Pull out windows onto other monitors including charts and price ladders. Amazing charts, coupled with a fantastic Price Ladder, DOM and unfiltered direct access market data, make Rithmic an excellent choice for many different types of traders. Bracket Orders are very simple to use and implement. One click trading from charts and a price ladder is available. View all of your performance from a performance analyzing page.
Rithmic offers two desktop platforms: R|Trader (entry-level) and R|Trader Pro (full-featured). Both are free with your Discount Trading account.
R|Trader handles order entry, position management, and trade history but doesn’t include charting. It works well if you trade off another platform’s charts and use Rithmic purely for execution. R|Trader Pro is the platform most clients use — it adds full charting with built-in studies and drawing tools, the price ladder/DOM, the Options Board, Excel integration, multi-monitor support, and the in-app workspace customization covered on this page. When we recommend Rithmic, we mean R|Trader Pro.
Non-throttled, quick quote distribution with orders routed fast to CME Globex — CBOT, CME, NYMEX, COMEX — over Rithmic’s efficient infrastructure.
Easy-to-use DOMs with one-click execution and support for pulse order entry.
An easy-to-use bracket order entry system, plus sophisticated order types including OCO and synthetic/server-side stops that stay active even if your platform disconnects.
Place, modify, and cancel orders directly from the chart and the price ladder.
Trade options on futures through R|Trader Pro’s built-in Options Board.
Flexible controls and windows — change background colors, fonts, and sizes easily to set up your workspace your way.
A multi-symbol quote board you can configure and color-code.
Copy trades from a master account to others, with trader-side risk parameters and limits.
Excel integration plus R|API, R|API+, and FIX to build and automate your own systems.
Here is each feature in more detail, with screenshots straight from the live platform.
The trading platform you use must be able to withstand large volumes of market data with very low latency. Having access to the right data quickly and consistently is critical for active futures traders. Rithmic provides traders access to one of the most widely used routing and connectivity solutions. Rithmic data is fast and a reliable market data provider.
Rithmic's trade execution software delivers to you the low latency and high throughput performance used by large trading houses and many large professional clients. Rithmic uses high paced dedicated servers co-located on the CME exchange for fast and direct access.
R|Trader Pro includes a charting package with built-in studies, drawing tools, annotation tools, and configurable options for bar types, timeframes, and the amount of data to view on a single chart.
Your orders reside on Rithmic's servers with 24/7 connectivity to the exchanges. If your computer goes down, your working orders do not.
Bracket orders can be enabled directly on the DOM or chart with one click. Pick a pre-built bracket template (e.g. 5-point stop, 10-point take profit/stop loss) or build your own with custom target ticks, stop type (stop market or stop limit), and trailing options.
R|Trader Pro integrates streaming quotes and trade signal compatibility with Microsoft Excel. This allows traders to use simple Excel formulas and spreadsheets to manipulate data, create trading signals, or even real-time fully automated trading systems. View over 100 studies and stream them in real-time into Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets. This is a great feature for system and indicator developers.
Options on Futures are available through the R|Trader platform and can be viewed and traded through the Options Board within R|Trader. Options on Futures are turned off by default - please ask a representative at Discount Trading about Option Trading over Rithmic.
Order history can be viewed, searched, and analyzed within R|Trader directly from the Rithmic infrastructure. You can also export your daily trades to CSV on a schedule for record-keeping, tax reporting, or analysis in Excel.
R|Trader publishes all order transmission timestamps so that traders can see at what speeds they are interfacing with the exchanges. Many other platforms don't do this - you cannot see how fast your trades make it to the exchange.
Market depth, price action, and simple order entry are all available through the Order Book. Bracket order templates, OCO orders, and other exit and entry strategies are also configurable via the Order Book - Price Ladder - DOM windows.
Build your own watchlist with the Quote Board. Track multiple symbols side-by-side with bid/ask sizes, last trade price, net change, daily high/low, and market mode — all updating in real time.
Stay in control of your account with built-in risk management you set yourself. R|Trader Pro lets you define per-account and per-product risk parameters that the platform enforces automatically — without waiting on broker intervention.
This is real, broker-grade risk management built right into the platform — the same kind of guardrails prop firms use to keep their traders disciplined.
Manage multiple Rithmic accounts at once with the built-in Trade Copier. Place a trade in your primary account and have it mirrored to one or many follower accounts in real time — no third-party software, no extra subscription, no API coding.
Ideal for traders managing family accounts, or anyone who needs the same setup mirrored across more than one account.
Rithmic Data Technology provides the speed, reliability, and unfiltered tick data necessary to compete in the futures markets. Traders around the world are discovering why professional traders demand Rithmic for their trading solution.
The Data and Order Routing Engine is co-located with the exchanges and core Internet carriers at one of the premier data centers in Chicago. The engine was built to support as much data as the exchanges can distribute and route orders in less than 100 milliseconds. Over 18 major Internet carriers are used to ensure network availability.
Many traders have experienced latency and delayed market updates but few were aware how little of the actual market movement they were seeing. Most systems are unable to keep up with volatile markets and compensate by dropping price data - sometimes referred to as "filtering." Rithmic provides unfiltered price data, giving you a true look at the markets.
The Market Data Trade History window lets you fetch and review every tick — price, size, buy/sell direction, and microsecond timestamps — for any symbol over a configurable window.
With no single point of failure, the Rithmic network operates on a fully redundant, professionally managed infrastructure monitored around-the-clock by the industry's leading engineers. Co-located on the same floor as the major exchanges, the data center provides the ultimate routing and connectivity solution.
Staying on the leading edge of speed and reliability means constant research and development of new network, hardware and software technologies. Rithmic is constantly searching for and testing new solutions to provide a faster and more robust means of processing and transporting data.
R|API is a collection of C++ and .NET software libraries and interface definitions. Developers and screen designers incorporate R|API into their proprietary software to gain access to R|Trade Execution Platform. R|API™ provides its callers with a normalized view of market data, reference data, and order and execution reports across all supported exchanges, with µsecond timestamp granularity.
Rithmic Trader Pro is available on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and any modern web browser — in addition to the desktop platform. The same login credentials work across every version. Your positions, working orders, account balances, and risk settings all live on Rithmic’s servers, so what you see on your phone matches what you see on your desktop at any moment.
Your Discount Trading account routed through Rithmic works immediately on the app and web — no separate sign-up or second password. (Live accounts only; not available to demo users.)
Each tile shows one contract; swipe between a chart, order entry, and live market activity. Keep your most-traded contracts side by side.
Place market and limit orders, modify or cancel from the order book, and use the dedicated button to pull working orders and flatten a position fast.
Live streaming quotes through the same Rithmic feed — no extra subscription — with a configurable price chart on each tile.
Runs in any modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) — same login, same interface, nothing to install.
Rithmic Mobile and Rithmic Web come with your connection — no separate subscription or activation fee.
When mobile makes sense: the apps are companions to the desktop, not replacements — ideal for monitoring open positions, flattening quickly when news hits, modifying or cancelling orders from anywhere, or placing simple entries. For backtesting, complex indicator setups, or deep order-flow analysis, the desktop platform is the right tool.
Rithmic uses a standardized symbol format for all futures contracts. All symbols are in CAPS with no spaces.
Full Contract: PRODUCT + MONTH + YEAR + .EXCHANGE
Front Month (Most Common): PRODUCT.EXCHANGE
| Code | Month | Code | Month | Code | Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | January | G | February | H | March |
| J | April | K | May | M | June |
| N | July | Q | August | U | September |
| V | October | X | November | Z | December |
Year Code: Last digit of the year (2026 = 6)
Examples below use month code U (September), H (March), and Z (December) with year code 6 (2026). Update the month letter and year digit for the contract month you want to trade.
| Contract | Full Contract Example | Front Month Example |
|---|---|---|
| E-mini S&P 500 | ESU6.CME | ES.CME |
| Micro E-mini S&P 500 | MESU6.CME | MES.CME |
| Mini Dow | YMU6.CBOT | YM.CBOT |
| Micro Mini Dow | MYMU6.CBOT | MYM.CBOT |
| E-mini Nasdaq | MNQH6.CME | MNQ.CME |
| Crude Oil | CLU6.NYMEX | CL.NYMEX |
| Gold | GCZ6.COMEX | GC.COMEX |
Rithmic’s servers sit in the same Aurora data center as the CME’s matching engines, so order transmission typically completes in well under a millisecond.
R|Trader and R|Trader Pro are both free with your Discount Trading account — full charting, the DOM, the Options Board, and quote boards at no extra cost.
$0.49 or less per contract commission on standard futures and $0.20 or less per contract commission on micro index futuresiExchange, clearing, and regulatory fees apply..
Some of the lowest day-trading margins available for active intraday tradersiLeverage can work for you as well as against you - it magnifies gains as well as losses..
Build and deploy your own trading systems with R|API, R|API+, or FIX, co-located alongside Rithmic’s servers and execution platform.
Get a person on the line during U.S. and Globex hours for account questions, platform issues, or to place a trade if your connection drops.
Platform Fee: R|Trader or R|Trader Pro - FREE
Rithmic Monthly Routing/Connection Fee: $0 for clients trading more than 100 round turn contracts per calendar month. $25 for clients trading less than 100 round turn contracts monthly.
R|Trader is the entry-level version — order entry and position management but no charting. R|Trader Pro adds full charting with built-in studies, the price ladder/DOM, the Options Board, Excel integration, and multi-monitor support. Both are free with your Discount Trading account; R|Trader Pro is what most clients use.
Yes — exchange data fees are separate from the platform itself. Each exchange (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, etc.) charges its own monthly data fee, which is billed based on the markets you choose to subscribe to. The Rithmic platform is free; the data feeds on top of it are separately priced. Contact us to walk through current data fee tiers for the markets you want to trade.
Yes, through the Options Board in R|Trader Pro. Options on futures are turned off by default on new accounts — ask a Discount Trading representative to enable options trading on your account and we’ll walk through the activation.
The desktop version is Windows-only. Mac users have three good options: run the Rithmic web app in any browser, use the Rithmic Trader Pro mobile app on iOS (works on Mac with Apple Silicon too), or run the Windows version through a virtual machine like Parallels or a Windows VPS. Most Mac-using traders we work with go with the web app for monitoring and the mobile app on iPad for active execution.
Rithmic powers data and execution for 18+ third-party platforms including Quantower, Sierra Chart, MultiCharts, ATAS, Bookmap, and Tickblaze. Your Rithmic credentials work across all of them simultaneously — same account, same positions, same orders visible everywhere. Useful if you want to use a specialty platform for analysis and Rithmic Mobile for execution on the go.
$0 per month if you trade 100 or more round-turn contracts in a calendar month. $25 per month if you trade fewer than 100. Active traders effectively pay nothing for the connection; the fee exists to cover infrastructure costs for very low-volume accounts.
Rithmic’s servers are co-located at the CME Aurora Data Center outside Chicago — the same building where the CME’s matching engines run. Order transmission typically completes in well under a millisecond, sometimes under 250 microseconds. For active futures traders the difference is meaningful: it’s the difference between getting filled on the price you wanted and getting filled one or two ticks later.
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