How to Start Your Own Brokerage

To start your own brokerage you need four things: a registered company, the right permissions for the countries you plan to serve, technology for your clients and staff, and a way to accept payments. This guide is about online trading brokerages, the businesses that give clients access to financial markets through a trading platform.

Build it yourself or use a turnkey brokerage setup

There are two main ways to get the technology in place.

• Build from scratch. You hire developers and create your own trading platform, client portal and back office. You control everything, but it takes the longest and costs the most, and you carry the maintenance yourself.
• Turnkey brokerage setup. A provider delivers ready-made, pre-configured and tested systems under your brand. You start much sooner, pay a predictable monthly fee and can spend your time on clients and marketing.

Turnkey suits a new brokerage well, because it lets you test the business before committing to a large technology budget.

How to start your own brokerage, step by step

1. Define your business. Decide which countries and client types you will serve and how you will attract them, for example through your own marketing or a network of introducing brokers.
2. Register a company. You need a company to sign legal agreements with technology providers and liquidity providers.
3. Check the licensing rules. Requirements depend on the services you offer and the countries you serve. Take advice from a qualified legal professional before you launch.
4. Choose your plan. Compare the number of active clients, groups and managers you need, and whether you want branded platforms, CRM and a frontend website. See our turnkey brokerage setup pricing.
5. Send your branding. Provide your logo, colours and domain. On plans with branded apps, a valid Apple Developer Account and Google Developer Account are needed to publish the apps under your company name.
6. Connect payments. The Trader’s Cabinet is already integrated with 50+ payment gateways. We only need the API details from the providers you choose.
7. Configure and test. Symbols, groups and trading conditions are set up in the back office, then the whole system goes through beta testing.
8. Launch and onboard clients. Open registration, start your marketing and manage clients, reporting and exposure from one place.

What a turnkey brokerage setup includes

• Trading platforms for desktop, web, Android and iOS
• Trader’s Cabinet & CRM for account opening, KYC / AML verification, payments and IB structures
• Broker management platform for client oversight, reporting and exposure monitoring
• Web admin for platform, symbol and risk configuration
• Frontend website on the Pro and Enterprise plans

How much it costs to start a brokerage

Our turnkey plans are published, with no hidden fees: Essential at $650 a month with no setup fee, Basic at $750 a month, Pro at $950 a month and Enterprise at $2,500 a month. Annual payment gives you 2 months free.

Budget separately for company registration, licensing, liquidity, legal advice and marketing. These depend on your business and the countries you serve.

How long it takes

A turnkey brokerage setup takes 5 days on average: from 2 days with the Essential package and up to 10 days for the Pro package. Company registration and licensing run on their own timelines, so start those early.

See how others did it in our case studies, or book a free demo.