eToro Launches 65 CME Futures Contracts for Australian Clients

eToro futures Australia is expanding: Australian clients of the broker can now trade 65 futures contracts listed by CME Group, the company said on Thursday. The contracts cover metals, equity indices, energy, currencies, crops and interest rates, and come in smaller sizes that require less capital per position.

The launch places exchange-traded futures alongside the contracts for difference (CFDs) eToro already offers in Australia. According to a January review by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), eToro holds 45% of the country's existing CFD traders.

A futures contract trades on an exchange and clears centrally, while a CFD is a private contract between a client and a trading firm.

eToro AUS Capital Limited, the local unit, issues the contracts under a target market determination dated October 28. Margin follows CME's requirement plus a buffer set by eToro, and every position requires a stop loss.

Clients must pass a suitability questionnaire and a knowledge test, and those who fail cannot try again for 30 days, according to the determination. Accounts also receive a margin close-out alert at 20% of available equity and negative balance protection.

eToro futures Australia launch list tops Spain's

Australia's opening list is longer than Spain's. Users in Spain first received 20 CME contracts across equities, energy and gold, before eToro added spot-quoted futures with a minimum of about $200 there in July 2025. CME has continued to reduce contract sizes since then.

In August, Sharon Brimer, eToro's senior director of dealing, said the company saw relatively little migration from CFDs in markets where it offers both.

The US launch comes later. On its third-quarter call, eToro said futures from TradeZero, the US broker it agreed to buy in August, would move into the main app once the deal closes, which it expects in the first half of 2027.

Robert Francis, managing director of eToro Australia, said the company was bringing "smaller-sized futures to our Australian community."

The screening steps follow years of scrutiny of eToro's Australian CFD business. In 2023, ASIC brought its first design and distribution case against eToro's local unit, alleging the CFD target market was too broad.

Futures sales are also on the regulator's list. An August review of nine online brokers selling futures, short-dated options and fractional shares found target market documents that did not explain how products fit clients' needs. eToro was not among the nine.

ASIC is keeping its CFD rules in place and has proposed extending its CFD product intervention order by 10 years to 2037.

Australian visits to retail FX and CFD broker websites fell 26.9% from the previous quarter to 4.55 million in the third quarter, according to FM Intelligence's heat map.

Alongside the launch, eToro and CME signed an education agreement covering videos on how futures work and their risks. Julie Winkler, chief commercial officer at CME Group, said that as self-directed investors take up the products, "education is essential to helping them trade effectively."

The rollout follows a third quarter in which eToro's net contribution fell 13% from a year earlier to $186 million.