Many retail traders believe they can get "great rates" at discount brokers, but there's a fundamental reality they're missing:
The Cost Reality No One Talks About
Fact: Even at the "competitive" retail broker AMP Futures, trading over 10,000 ES contracts monthly (their highest volume tier) still costs nearly $4.00 per round turn.
Raen Reality: Our traders pay approximately $1.20 per round turn. That's not a typo.
This isn't about saving a few pennies. Let's break down what this means in practical terms:
ES contracts (1 tick = $12.50):
AMP/Retail: $4.00 per round turn = 0.32 ticks to break even
Raen: $1.20 per round turn = 0.10 ticks to break even
Your strategy needs 3× less edge to be profitable
NQ contracts (1 tick = $5.00):
AMP/Retail: $4.20 per round turn = 0.84 ticks to break even
Raen: $1.30 per round turn = 0.26 ticks to break even
3× less edge required
When your retail broker advertises "low commissions," they're not telling you about exchange fees, regulatory fees, and other costs that are unavoidable in retail structures. There's simply no way around it.
Slippage: The Hidden Cost Killer
Commissions are just the start. The real advantage comes from how your orders get executed:
Retail Reality: Your order goes through multiple middlemen, each taking their cut through slippage.
Raen Reality: Direct Market Access with institutional-grade order routing.
In real terms:
50 lot ES market order at retail: 1.25 ticks × $12.50 × 50 = $781.25 in slippage
Same order at Raen: 0.25 ticks × $12.50 × 50 = $156.25
$625 better execution on a single trade
Our traders see this difference on every execution.
What This Means For Intraday Trading
If you're scalping ES, NQ, CL, GC or any major futures contract, here's what changes:
Scalping ES:
Retail: Need 0.5+ tick moves just to break even
Raen: Profitable with just 0.15 tick average move
Result: 3× more trading opportunities throughout the day
Gold (GC) Momentum Trades:
Retail: Must wait for bigger moves to overcome costs
Raen: Can profitably trade smaller price movements
Result: More trades, higher win rate, lower risk per trade
More Frequent Trading:
Retail: High costs force you to be ultra-selective
Raen: Can trade 3× more frequently with the same edge
Result: More compounding opportunities, faster growth
Scale: Where Retail Trading Hits A Wall
The real difference appears when you try to scale:
Trading 100 ES contracts daily:
Retail cost: $4.00 × 100 = $400/day → $100,000/year
Raen cost: $1.20 × 100 = $120/day → $30,000/year
Annual difference: $70,000
Trading 500 ES contracts daily:
Retail cost: $4.00 × 500 = $2,000/day → $500,000/year
Raen cost: $1.20 × 500 = $600/day → $150,000/year
Annual difference: $350,000
This is when "a few dollars in fees" becomes the difference between success and failure.
The Bottom Line
There's a reason institutional traders dominate the futures markets - they're playing an entirely different game with fundamentally different economics.
At the retail level, a strategy with a 60% win rate and 1:1 risk-reward might barely break even after all costs.
At Raen, that same strategy could generate consistent profits because:
You need 3× less edge to be profitable
You can trade 3× more frequently
Your orders get filled 3-5× better
You can deploy 5-8× more capital through superior margining
These aren't small differences - they're the structural advantages that separate successful professional traders from retail traders fighting an uphill battle.
The question isn't whether these advantages matter. The question is whether you're serious enough about your trading career to put yourself in an environment where the odds are actually in your favor.