- Richard Berry
- Updated
Natural Gas brokers let you trade and invest in Natural Gas markets through their online platforms via futures, CFDs, spread bets or ETFs. You can use our comparison table of what we think are the best natural gas trading platforms to compare spreads, commission, minimum deposits and what type of market access a broker provides to the natural gas markets.
Compare Natural Gas Trading Platforms
Nat Gas Broker | Minimum Deposit | GMG Rating | More Info | Risk Warning |
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£100 | See Platform | 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
£1 | See Platform | 75.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
£1 | See Platform | 64% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
£100 | See Platform | 80% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. | ||
£250 | See Platform | 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider. | ||
£1 | See Platform | 65% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
$50 | See Platform | 51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money | ||
£1 | See Platform | 68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
$2,000 | See Platform | 62.5% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
£1 | See Platform | 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | ||
£100 | See Platform | 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. | ||
£10 | See Platform | 66.95% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
Our picks of the best brokers for trading Natural Gas
❓Methodology: We have chosen what we think are the best natural gas trading platforms based on:
- over 17,000 votes in our annual awards
- our own experiences testing the nat gas trading accounts with real money
- an in-depth comparison of the features that make them stand out compared to alternatives.
- interviews with the natural gas broker’s CEOs and senior management
City Index: Best Nat Gas CFD trading platform
69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
City Index Review
Name: City Index
Description: City Index is one of the oldest spread betting and CFD brokers based in the UK. They were founded in 1983 and offer trading in over 13,500 financial markets, to around 126,000 active clients. City Index is currently owned by StoneX, a US brokerage listed on the NASDAQ valued at $1.75bn.
69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Why we like them:
City Index offers some of the best trading tools and analysis to help traders perform better. Their unique post-trade analytics and voice brokerage service make it an excellent choice for large and frequent traders.
Pros
- Excellent trading tools
- Post-trade analytics
- Publically listed (part of StoneX)
Cons
- Trading only, no investment account
- Limited options markets
- No direct market access
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Pricing
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Market Access
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Online Platform
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Customer Service
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Research & Analysis
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4.3Pepperstone: Automated Natural Gas trading on MT4
75.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Pepperstone Review
Name: Pepperstone
Description: Pepperstone were founded in 2010 in Australia and have since then grown to be a global brokerage with international offices and around 400,000 active clients. They offer spread betting and CFDs on 1,200 major market instruments, which means they focus on the most heavily traded assets, mainly forex and indices trading. Of those 900 are shares on the major stocks on international exchanges.
75.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Why we like them
Pepperstone is a good choice for traders that want to automate their trading strategies through MT4. As far as MT4 brokers they are one of the biggest and best and offers so good EA packages.
Pros
- Tight pricing
- Wide range of MT4 markets
- Pre-built MT4 indicator packages
Cons
- Limited market access
- Only third-party platforms
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4.1Spreadex: Nat Gas trading with personal service
72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Spreadex Review
Name: Spreadex
Description: Spreadex is a financial spread betting broker that has been in operation since 1999. It was founded by ex-city trader Jonathan Hufford and unlike many of its peers, it is not based in London, but instead is headquartered in St Albans Hertfordshire. Spreadex offers both financial spread betting and CFD trading from the same account. The company has some 60,000 account holders and offers access to more than 10,000 financial instruments, including UK small-cap shares, where it is something of a specialist.
Is Spreadex a good broker?
Spreadex is one of the most established spread betting brokers. They focus on providing excellent customer service through experienced dealers and a trading platform built from scratch in-house. A good choice for those that like to spread bet.
Pros
- Spread betting & CFDs
- Smaller cap stock trading
- Great customer service
Cons
- Not publically listed
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Pricing
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Market Access
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Online Platform
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Customer Service
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Research & Analysis
Overall
4.4Interactive Brokers: Discount Natural Gas trading
60% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Interactive Brokers Review
Name: Interactive Brokers
Description: Interactive Brokers is a major US online automated electronic broker company. The financial broker is listed on the Nasdaq Exchange with ticker IBKR. The firm operates in 150 electronic exchanges in 33 countries, and offers trading in 23 currencies. Interactive Brokers has more than 1.75 million institutional and retail customers.
Why we like them
Interactive Brokers is an exceptional trading platform that offers institutional-grade trading capabilities to private clients around the world. IBKR has some of the lowest trading and investing fees and the widest market range in the industry.
Pros
- Very low dealing fees
- Wide market range
- Direct market access
- Complex order types
Cons
- Customer services can be slow
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Pricing
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Apps & Platform
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4.6IG: Best Natural Gas spread betting platform
69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider.
IG Review
Name: IG
Description: Founded in 1974 as Investors Gold Index, then IG Index, now just “IG” is one of the world’s largest margin trading brokers. IG offer CFDs, FX and Spread Betting (in the UK) alongside share trading and prime brokerage to over 313,000 active clients and offers 17,000 tradable markets. IG also recently introduced physical share dealing and smart portfolios for longer-term investors.
69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider.
Is IG a good trading platform?
Yes, IG provides an excellent all-round trading and investing brokerage service. IG pioneered online trading and financial spread betting for private clients and remains not only one of the largest online trading platforms, but also one of the best. IG stands out through deep liquidity, high market range and excellent added value such as trading tools and analysis.
Pros
- Vast range of markets
- Excellent liquidity & DMA equities
- Listed on the London Stock Exchange
Cons
- Customer service can be slow
- No DMA futures trading
- Still charges inactivity fee
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Pricing
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Market Access
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Online Platform
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4.7CMC Markets: High-tech Nat Gas trading platform
74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
CMC Markets Review
Name: CMC Markets
Description: CMC Markets is one of the original spread betting and CFD brokers based in the UK. They have been providing forex trading services since 1989 and are now listed on the London Stock Exchange. The broker has over 300,000 active clients trading online and is operated from 13 global offices, with headquarters in The City of London.
68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Is CMC Markets legit?
Yes, CMC Markets has always offered, and still does one of the best trading platforms for high-frequency and active traders. It’s a good choice for those who want to trade on tight spreads, with a platform built on exceptional tech.
Pros
- Excellent trading platform
- Good liquidity
- Unique sentiment tools
Cons
- Trading only, no investing account
- Limited smaller cap stocks
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Pricing
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4.6XTB: Good Oil trading educational material
- Minimum deposit: £1
- Equity overnight financing: -0.02341% / -0.00159% DAILY
- Account types: CFDs
81% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
XTB Review
Name: XTB
Description: XTB is a CFD and forex broker headquartered in Poland and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE:XTB) valued at over $1bn. XTB was founded in 2003 and offers forex, indices, commodities, ETF and stock CFD trading. XTB has historically used celebrity endorsements to promote it’s brand including Jose Mourinho, Conor McGregor, Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Jiří Procházka.
76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Summary
XTB, are a decent all-round trading platform and a good choice for most small-to-medium sized CFD traders. They are publically listed in Poland and offer, competitive spreads on a fairly wide range of markets.
The key things to focus on when considering trading with XTB are:
- They have their own proprietary trading platform. When I interviewed Omar Arnaout, the XTB CEO Omar Arnout, he said “I’m really proud of our platform and honestly believe it’s one of the best in the market.” Rightly so.
- They really push client education, XTB won “Best Trading Platform Education” in our 2023 awards (although they didn’t show up to collect the trophy, they never do). You can read their Q&A on forex education here.
- Customer service is paramount. Omar said that “first and foremost is the customer service”. I really agree with this as I think it’s important to have a few different trading accounts (diversify, diversify, diversify) and you’ll trade more with the broker that treats you best.
Pros
- Publically listed
- Mulitple platform choices
- Innovative order types
Cons
- Not UK based
- No DMA
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Pricing
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Market Access
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Online Platform
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Customer Service
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4Saxo Markets: Best Nat Gas futures trading & ETF platform
70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Saxo Review
Name: Saxo
Description: Saxo is one of the largest CFD brokers worldwide and provides direct market access to equities, bonds, forex, futures and options as well as being a major liquidity and infrastructure provider to wealth managers, banks and smaller brokers.
65% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Is Saxo Markets a good broker?
Yes, Saxo is a good choice for more sophisticated traders. The platform, analysis, and direct market access may be too complicated for beginners. But, for experienced traders its coverage, commissions and research are unrivalled.
Pros
- Direct market access
- Low commissions
- Robust trading platform
Cons
- Seen as a trading platform for professionals
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Pricing
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4.6eToro: Copy other people’s Gas trading
51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
eToro Review
Name: eToro
Description: eToro is a social trading platform that lets their users share new and existing CFD positions and their investment portfolios. eToro was founded in 2007 in Tel Aviv, Isreal and has grown to offer investing and trading on 3,000 global assets (including real cryptocurrencies) to 30 millions users worldwide.
51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
Is eToro a good broker?
Yes, eToro does have its flaws for experienced investors, but if you are just getting started eToro is a great introduction to financial markets. eToro is actually a very innovative trading platform offering copy trading, social networking and unleveraged CFDs.
Pros
- Really simple to use
- Social and copy-trading
- Set your own leverage
- Pre-built sector portfolios
Cons
- Can only trade and invest in USD
- No SIPPs or ISA
- No direct market access
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Pricing
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Online Platform
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4.1What is natural gas?
How can you trade natural gas?
Natural gas is a popular commodity for traders and hedgers. Prices are notoriously volatile, lending to quick potentially profitable trades. You can trade natural gas through futures, options, stocks, spread betting or ETFs. We review these instruments below.
Best Natural Gas Trading Platform For Futures
Saxo Markets is one of the best futures brokers for trading Natural Gas futures. They provide a professional trading platform with direct market access to nat gas futures contracts and exchanges.
Natural gas futures are one of the most popular methods to speculate on natural gas prices. Simply, futures contracts are a form of financial derivatives with an element of embedded leverage (due to low margin requirements). Most futures contracts are standardised with a specified size, minimum price fluctuations and delivery dates.
The Henry Hub Natural Gas (ticker: NG) is the industry benchmark in the world and they are active traded on the NYMEX under the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group. Like crude oil contracts, natural gas futures are available in all calendar months. For example, the first six contracts are shown below.
Source: CME
Best Natural Gas Trading Platform For Options
Interactive Brokers is one of the best brokers for trading Natural Gas options. They have an excellent nat gas options trading board, chain and order execution strategy tool, plus commissions are very low.
Options are time-limited financial contracts on a specified future price. The degree of leverage in option contracts is as high as futures. Some option contracts can be worthless at expiry dates (‘out of money’ options).
To trade natural gas options, some knowledge about options is needed, including terms (strike prices, duration, delta), the calculation of option premium, and strategies. You buy ‘call options’ if you think natural gas prices will rise; and a ‘put option’ if you anticipate price declines. You can write natural gas options but that entails further specialised knowledge and experience.
- Further reading: options trading explained
A screenshot of the CME American-style option is exhibited below:
Source: CME
Please Note: Natural gas options are only suitable for experienced investors and traders.
Best Natural Gas Trading Platform For Investing
Hargreaves Lansdown provides access to a wide range of companies with exposure to natural gas. They have excellent market data pages for analysing the financial health of companies as well as display broker recommendations for specific stocks you are interested in buying.
Apart from futures and options, another option is equities. The natural gas industry is a huge sector. Many companies engage in producing and exporting nat gas; while some focus on building the infrastructure to transport the commodity. A few are even Fortune 500 companies.
Apart from oil majors, the following companies are engaged in the natural gas industries:
- Cheniere Energy (LNG:US) – a $40 billion company that exports LNG
- EQT Corporation (EQT:US) – one of the largest natural gas producers
- Kinder Morgan (KMI:US) – operates many pipelines and terminals
- Smaller companies: Anterior Resource (AR:US), Range Resources (RRC:US), Southwestern Energy (SWN:US)
In the UK, some non-major companies that explore the North Sea include Serica Energy (SQZ:UK), Harbour (HBR) and EnQuest (ENQ).
One big difference between natural gas and natural gas stocks is that the latter may go bankrupt. Remember, natural gas is a highly cyclical industry. Companies that took on excessive debt to expand during the boom times often suffer when prices decline. An example is Chesapeake Energy, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
Therefore, buying natural gas stocks entail doing further research into the financial aspect of these companies.
Best Natural Gas Trading Platform For Spreadbetting and CFDs
City Index is one of the best brokers for trading natural gas as a spread bet or CFDs. They offer some good performing trading signals through their SMART Signals feature and also post-trade analytics so you can see where you trade profitable trade natural gas.
You can trade CFDs spread bet natural gas prices with financial brokers if you wish to avoid holding futures contracts. You can either hold a position on spot or future natural gas prices and also benefit from rising or falling markets by going long (buying) or short (selling).
Spot positions are usually for day-traders while futures-based contracts are positional trades, ie, multi-day/week trades.
Like future contracts, you will need sufficient margin to open a position. If the position moves against you, additional capital is required to maintain the trade. If not, the broker will liquidate the underwater position.
Best Natural Gas Trading Platform For ETFs
IG is one of the best brokers for trading natural gas ETFs, as you can go long and short them through either CFDs or spread bets, but also invest in them in the long term with their physical share trading account.
What moves natural gas prices?
Gas prices, like most other commodities, are linked to a number of macro factors. Broadly speaking, you will need to know these two:
- Fundamentals
- Technicals – and psychology, too
The weight and importance of each factor interact with one another to produce the trend we see on charts. We look at each in turn.
Fundamentals
Commodity prices seldom exist in a vacuum. A vast quantity of information bombards the market each day to create minute price moves, which, over time, lead to price ‘trends’.
Fundamental factors are concerned with two elements: Supply and demand. It is the juxtaposition of both factors that create the natural gas market.
Supply
On supply, traders are concerned with the following:
- Current inventories and storage levels
- Future production levels
- Catalysts that result in ‘supply shocks’ (eg, war in gas-producing countries)
Basically, traders estimate using historical data if the natural gas market will be in deficit, surplus, or in equilibrium over the medium term.
Did you know that natural gas reserves are highly concentrated? A mere 7 countries has 70 percent of the total gas reserves. Russia alone sits on top of 24% of the global gas reserves. Therefore, any political turbulence in these countries will disrupt the supply of natural gas and cause price spikes.
Demand
On demand, investors assess the following factors:
- Current and future global requirements
- Seasonal changes
- Catalysts that will impact the above
Weather is a big factor in the analysis of natural gas. An unusually cold or warm winter will precipitate volatile natural gas price action since it impacts demand unexpectedly.
However, data by itself is not enough – as every major investor already ‘know’ these data. You have to assume that what is widely available is not worth knowing because it is already ‘priced in’.
The market anticipates future levels – and that’s what drives current prices. Sometimes, technology may come into play. One example is ‘shale gas’ – a form of natural gas (methane) found in shale rocks. The last decade saw a steady supply of shale gas in the market. This factor alone caused natural gas prices to stay subdued for years, as depicted in the chart below:
Source: EQT Corp
Technicals and psychology
The next set of important factors impacting natural gas prices are technicals. By technicals we mean:
- Chart formations
- Indicators – eg moving averages
- Important levels and trends
Of course, not every investor will subscribe to charting techniques. Many view indicators as ‘voodoo’ economics. However, there are a few things worth re-capping about charts and their significance in the financial market.
One is the role of self-fulfilling expectations. For example, upon a strong rally above $3.80 – eg, a level not seen for many quarters – many traders will buy natural gas contracts simply because prices have rallied above a referenced ceiling. The breakout creates additional demand regardless of the fundamentals.
Two, price trends will tell investors instantly whether demand is strong or weak. A very strong market may lead to an exuberant buying of natural gas. There are many ‘trend-following’ funds in the market that buy when the trend is bullish and sell when the trend is bearish. This creates lasting momentum beyond any fundamental news.
Lastly, it is worth remembering that market participants drive prices. And market participants are subject to strong emotions. Traders can be irrational at times because of fear and greed. These will create wild swings in natural gas prices.
Natural Gas Trading Tips & Strategy
One, before risking hard-earned capital trading natural gas, you must have a clear plan of how to trade the commodity. Spell out the strategy of when to buy the commodity, how much, and what to do if the position slips into a loss or hits a profit target. Having a rough plan is better than no plan at all.
Two, do not over-trade the market – unless you are experienced with the contract and price behaviour. Over-leverage is a deadly sin that even veterans fall into. In 2006, Brian Hunter’s oversized position in natural gas caused a multi-billion loss in Amaranth Advisors as prices went against him.
Three, keep tabs on macro instruments too, such as the Dollar (since it affects the pricing of natural gas), energy sectors (spillovers effect), and the general market sentiment (‘risk on, risk off’).
Four, be aware that natural gas prices are ‘mean reverting’ – unlike stock prices where a company can grow 50x over time (eg Apple). Look at this long-term chart of natural gas – there is a clear ceiling. Spikes are common too. The natural gas market becomes exuberant and bearish over a short period of time.
Five, do not go against the market unless you have very deep pockets to sustain the position. An overbought trend can become overbought; whilst an oversold decline could become even more oversold in the near term.
⚠️ FCA Regulation
All nat gas trading platforms that operate in the UK must be regulated by the FCA. The FCA is the Financial Conduct Authority and is responsible for ensuring that UK natural gas brokers platforms are properly capitalised, treat customers fairly and have sufficient compliance systems in place. We only feature natural gas trading platforms that are regulated by the FCA, where your funds are protected by the FSCS.
Natural Gas Trading Platform FAQs:
In the US, the Henry Hub natural gas future trades:
- Chicago 17:00 – 04:00 Sunday to Friday (Central time)
- New York 18:00 – 05:00 Sunday to Friday (Eastern time)
And in London:
- London 23:00 – 10:00 Sunday to Friday (UK time)
There are a few ways to trade natural gas.
- The first is directional. You open positions in, say, November contract in the summer hoping that prices will rally into the year end.
- Some traders prefer using reversionary tactics, buying at range lows and selling at range highs.
- There are others who trade spreads – buying a near-month contract and selling a far-month contract and vice versa.
Each strategy has its own strength and weakness. As a trader, you will need to be comfortable using the strategy.
Nat gas swing trading is a trading strategy designed to exploit price swings. Natural gas prices are notoriously volatile – even before the disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Astute traders will use technical oscillators to measure overbought/oversold trends and open positions in anticipation of a modest price trend emerging.
Yes. You can short natural gas through futures, options, spread betting and CFD trading to potentially profit from price falls as well as increases.
- Further reading – what is short selling?
There are natural gas data produced by governments or agencies. One of them is called inventories/storage data. In the US, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) produces the Natural Gas Storage report that measures the weekly change in the number of cubic feet of natural gas held in underground storage. Some traders use this report to trade natural gas.
In most natural gas future contract, the specification is measured in MMBtu – which stands for Metric Million British Thermal Unit. A BTU measures the energy content of gas and equals the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a pound of liquid water by 1 °F.
Yes. As with all financial markets if you call the market correctly you can make money. However, natural gas is one of the most volatile commodities and therefore one of the hardest to make money from on a regular basis because of the unpredictability of it’s price.
Richard Berry
This article contains affiliate links which may earn us some form of income if you go on to open an account. However, if you would rather visit the natural gas brokers via a non-affiliate link, you can view their nat gas trading pages directly here: