Best Futures Trading Courses

Learning how to trade futures can be extremely profitable — but it takes a lot of dedication and careful study to learn to be a good trader. Futures trading isn’t for everyone, but to know for sure, why not check out a trading course to learn the basics? Or take a course to hone your skills if you’re already a dedicated trader. Can you see why you need to know about the best futures trading courses?

Here’s how to get started.

Best Futures Trading Courses

• Best for Mobile Users: Plus500
• Best for Short Courses: Udemy
• Best for Free Courses: CME Group
• Best for Mentoring: UC Trading

Here are Benzinga’s top choices for online futures trading courses. You’ll see beginner through advanced classes on many of these sites, so you must decide which one is best for you. 

Are you looking for a course that has more interaction with a professional trader? If so, you might pay more because you’ll pay for a professional’s expertise and time. Maybe you’re simply looking for a course that can teach you the basics through videos. In that case, there are many cheaper (or free!) options. 

We’ve split them up into 3 categories: best trading courses for beginners, best overall trading course and the best advanced futures trading courses. Each category is then split by the lowest price point, medium price point and the highest price point. 

Best Futures Trading Courses

These beginning trading courses teach the basic rules and terminology of futures trading and help you understand the market better. 

Do you need a lot of capital to succeed in today’s volatile market? Some say yes but because of the leverage available in different markets, if you understand the potential within the futures market you can use it to profit.

That’s what Neil Yeager sets out to achieve in this one-hour crash course designed for anyone from beginner to the advanced trader. He’s the perfect guide to help you understand how to take advantage of this market.

After all, Neil is Simpler Trading’s intraday futures, currencies, and commodities trading expert and statistician. He has a wealth of knowledge about the markets. His combination of market profiling, Japanese candlesticks, and statistical data he pulls from personal studies he conducts on the ES will improve your knowledge of the markets immensely. He’s methodical and conservative in his entries and has excellent risk-to-reward ratios on his trades. Neil’s strategies are strengthened by statistical modeling and backtest.

Because of recent extreme market volatility, even if you don’t trade futures, Neil’s statistical approach to market analysis is sure to improve your trading. So for a limited time, Simpler Trading is offering instant access to their crash course recordings at a special discount. Act now before this offer expires.

1. Best for Mobile Users: Plus500

Plus500 is more than a multi-asset, global fintech platform. When you want to trade with Plus500, you can go to their Trading Academy to learn how the futures market works. There’s an entire suite of free articles and videos that take you from your first steps in the futures market to advanced transactions that will help build a robust portfolio.

2. Best for Short Courses: Udemy

Udemy is a low-risk way to try out futures trading — some classes like the Futures Trading Ninja: DIY Futures Trading Course are perfect for beginners.

Most of the courses are between 5 and 20 hours, and you can try out several for a relatively low price of $11.99 per class.

You won’t get any feedback on your trading skills, but it is an inexpensive way to understand how futures trading works. 

3. Best for Free Courses: CME Group

To be a successful futures trader, you have to start from the beginning. CME Group teaches a Learn To Trade Futures, a course that shows how contracts work, incorporates expiration dates and how to trade in tick increments.

The best part? CME Group is 100% free, and you can revisit it as many times as you like. However, because it’s free, it won’t have as many strategies or tips that other courses on this list might have. This course is a great place to get your feet wet, but consider expanding your knowledge with a paid course. 

4. Best for Mentoring: UC Trading

Price: 1750€

The UC Trading Mentoring is a futures trading mentorship program entirely based on pop trading knowledge offering a professional and unique trading approach that most other providers do not have access to. Utilised tools include the volume profile, market profile and order flow instrumentssuch as the footprint chart. It is accompanied by diversified coaching mediums such as a video course, Discord trading room, webinars and 1-on-1 coaching sessions to ensure the best possible learning experience.

The mentoring is led by a former private banker andexperienced professional in his field of work maintaining 10+ years of experience in the financial markets.

In close collaboration with your mentor, this course will teach you:

• Prop trading knowledge

• Profitable strategies

• Learn to read the markets

• Understand the logic behind market patterns

• Developing your individual trading plan

• 1-on-1 coaching

The entire coaching process is clearly structured and follows 3phases guiding you through the various steps to become a successful day trader.

Phase 1 is built on a video course and builds a theoreticalunderstanding of the futures markets and day trading principles. Watch the videos and solve the enclosed exercises to internalise the content.

Phase 2 is built on a Discord trading room and puts theory into practice providing numerous sample analyses, trades and webinars. Through continuous trade reviews and in close collaboration with your mentor, you will develop an individual trading plan fitting your individual personality. Students can interact in the trading room, receive answers to their questionsand receive individual support. In addition, group exercises with video feedback complete the holistic support providing further resources to guide you best possible through the learning process.

Phase 3 is built on self-reflection and finalising a profitable trading approach. 1-on-1 coaching sessions illustrate a unique way to support students in their learning journey. It helps identifying strengths, weaknesses and hidden hurdles while guiding the path ensuring to reach your goal of becoming a consistently profitable day trader.

What is Futures Trading?

Futures trading has everything to do with the future. Futures trading is a contract between a seller and a buyer that some asset — typically a currency (dollars, euros, etc.), an index (group of stocks) or commodity (physical substance like gold or oil) — will be bought or sold for a specific price on a particular date in the future. 

Futures traders do not trade contracts with the intent to actually take possession or distribute a particular commodity. Instead, futures traders take advantage of price fluctuations that might happen after a sale occurs. 

You can trade futures contracts on specific exchanges. Markets like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) or Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are 2 places where you can trade futures. 

Unlike the stock market, futures trading doesn’t have restrictions like minimum capital required or time restrictions. You can sell and buy contracts whenever the market is open. In addition, futures traders don’t need to have $25,000 of equity in their account, which is the capital requirement for day trading on the stock market in the United States. 

What Makes a Great Futures Trading Course?

Online courses can teach you about futures trading, but look for a course that will give you a strong understanding of the market that you want to trade, as well as strategies to maximize profits. Some courses even offer continued support and mentors to help guide you in your journey once the class has ended. 

Look for these characteristics when you choose a futures trading course: 

• Strong foundation: You must first have an understanding of the futures market to learn how to start trading futures. These courses should teach you the strategies you need to help maximize your profits. 
• Mentoring: Course leaders who are objective observers should be able to help you learn. A mentor can help give professional advice on how to correct any fatal flaws you might be making. 
• Ongoing support: Some trading schools can offer continued support or allow you to revisit key lessons to continue your education in the futures trading market and learn new developments — particularly in technology.

Put Your Skills to the Test

Make sure you choose your futures trading course wisely. Before you sign up, read all the reviews. Let’s say one person writes a bad review because he lost a lot of money to trading — it doesn’t necessarily mean that the course itself was bad. It could mean that the student didn’t put into practice what he learned. Take the time to read the description of a particular course to learn what you can expect from your futures trading course. 

If you do decide that you want to take one of these trading courses, make sure that you take full advantage of the opportunity — engage yourself and learn as much as possible. 

Interested in more information about trading futures, check out futures education courses on Benzinga.

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