Easy Solution to CME Funded Trading Account Requirement

Introduction

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and all of the sub exchanges (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX) have a requirement where in order to receive real-time market data from these exchanges at the lower-priced nonprofessional fees require that you have what they call an active and capitalized trading account. This means an account, that has some balance on it.

Therefore, when using the Denali Exchange Data Feed, if you activate one of these CME related nonprofessional exchange fees you will still not receive the real-time data until Sierra Chart is able to confirm you have a live funded trading account. It is the CME which imposes this requirement.

It must be understood, that Top Step Trader, Earn 2 Trade, One Up Trader, LeeLoo, UProfit, Apex, and other trading evaluator accounts do not count towards a live funded trading account. Therefore, the information on this page applies to users of these services as well.

For further information about this, refer to Understanding and Accessing Data From the CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX Exchanges.

You may have a funded futures trading account, but it is not with a supported trading platform service in which case there is no way for Sierra Chart to programmatically verify existence of the account.

We use a programmatic verification method, because this is the only consistent and efficient way to confirm the existence of a funded trading account. Since otherwise we have no knowledge of your trading account or its balance.

This complicates market data access and can prevent you from accessing the real-time data even though you are paying for it.

This page documents the preferred solution to this problem.

The solution is to open a trading account with an account balance of 100 USD with the futures broker Stage 5 (preferred). The brokers Edge Clear or Cannon Trading can also be used but you need to contact them regarding their minimum balance requirement. Detailed instructions are below.

Even if you do not want to use these brokers for trading, that is fine. You do not have to use them for trading if you do not want. You can use other supported services for your futures trading. However, having a trading account with these brokers will allow you to authorize the CME Group market data when using any of the CME Group nonprofessional exchange fees, no matter what Trading service you are using.

These brokers/trading services will set you up on the Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing Service. The advantage of this service is that it provides the industries best quality and most reliable order routing. It is also free! You do not have to connect once a month to this Trading service to authorize the real time CME data at the nonprofessional rates as Sierra Chart will automatically know that you are using it. This makes the solution easy.

This solution is also recommended when you want to use the Sierra Chart Simulated Futures Trading Service with real-time data and you do not yet have a funded futures trading account. This is an easy way to obtain the real-time CME Group data at the lower cost nonprofessional fees with a minimum trading account balance.

It needs to be made clear that the solution documented on this page is *only* for use by those traders who are considered *non-professional* by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. If you are determined to be a professional based on their rules, you will be required to pay the higher priced professional exchange fees for market data.

Instructions

1. Open a trading account with Stage 5 with a balance of 100 USD.
   
   You can also open an account with Edge Clear or Cannon Trading. Contact them regarding minimum balance requirements.
   
   Stage 5 will set up your account on the Teton Futures Order Routing Service.
2. Connect to this trading account once a month, to authorize the CME Group data. Instructions. Although in the case of Teton Order Routing it is not necessary to connect once a month. It is automatically known by Sierra Chart systems that you have an account Teton Order Routing.