Rithmic
The futures market-data and order-routing infrastructure behind many prop firm accounts — the plumbing that carries prices to your screen and your orders to the exchange.
Rithmic is a trading-infrastructure provider for futures. It supplies real-time market data, order routing, order management, and risk controls — the layer that sits between your trading platform and the exchange. It isn’t a broker and it isn’t a prop firm; it’s the low-latency pipe a great many futures accounts run on, including plenty of prop firm accounts.
The pieces you’ll actually meet:
- The data feed. Streaming unfiltered tick-by-tick quotes with Level 1 and Level 2 depth. When your firm asks you to choose or pay for a “data feed” at signup, this is often what they mean.
- R | Trader Pro. Rithmic’s own trading application, with charting, order execution, market depth, risk tools, and a live two-way link to Excel.
- R | API+. Software libraries (C++ and .NET) developers use to build their own trading applications on top of the same normalized market data and execution.
- Platform connections. Many popular third-party futures platforms connect through Rithmic, which is why your firm’s credentials often work across several front-ends.
Why it matters to you as a funded trader: your fills, your depth-of-market ladder, and the speed of your stop orders all travel this route. When a firm says its accounts are “Rithmic-connected,” it’s telling you the execution path is a professional one rather than a bolted-together simulation.
Two practical notes. First, your firm may charge a monthly data fee for the feed — budget for it alongside your evaluation cost. Second, if you plan to run automation or a trade copier, check that your tools support your firm’s specific connection; compatibility is usually straightforward, but confirming beats discovering.
Know your plumbing and the platform stops being a mystery. Read activation and data fees, and compare platform support firm by firm in our directory.