A trading terminal is the working surface of an active trader. Instead of typing an order into a simple broker ticket, you watch prices move, analyze them on charts, see the order book, and send orders from the same screen. The broker or prop firm holds your account; the terminal is how you work in it. Aeris, our own native desktop terminal for futures and crypto, is the running example in this guide.
We will walk through what a terminal actually does, part by part: charts and data feeds, the order book, order types, risk controls such as flatten and the kill switch, and order-flow tools. Then we compare desktop, browser, and broker-bundled apps, and end with a checklist for choosing one, whether you trade your own account or an evaluation at a proprietary trading firm.
What a trading terminal is
A terminal combines three things that used to be separate:
- A market data feed that streams prices, trades, and order-book depth into the app.
- Analysis tools such as charts, indicators, alerts, and order-flow views.
- An order route that carries your orders to the exchange through your account’s connection.
Terminal versus broker portal
Your broker or prop firm issues login credentials for a connection, such as Rithmic for futures, and the terminal uses that connection to receive prices and send orders. Rithmic describes itself as trade execution and market data infrastructure: the plumbing between your screen and the exchange. Aeris connects to Rithmic directly from your computer, with no Aeris server in the path of your login, your market data, or your orders.
This is different from a broker’s account portal. A portal manages deposits, statements, and maybe a basic order ticket. A terminal is built for decisions at market speed: charts update tick by tick, the order book moves constantly, and an order is one click or one hotkey away.
For a prop-firm trader the terminal matters even more. Evaluation and funded accounts carry daily loss limits and drawdown rules, so the speed and clarity of your exits, and controls like flatten, are part of staying inside the rules. The terminal does not enforce the firm’s rules for you, but it determines how fast you can act on them.
Charts and market data
Everything in a terminal starts with the data feed, and feeds come in three depths:
- Top of book: the best bid and ask and the last trade. Enough for basic charting.
- Market depth: the resting orders at each price level, which the DOM and order-flow tools need.
- Tick data: every trade recorded instead of summarized into bars, which footprint charts and Time & Sales are built from.
Charts that keep up with the tape
Charts turn that feed into something readable. A capable terminal offers the usual bar types and timeframes, a library of indicators, drawing tools for levels and trend lines, and price alerts so you do not have to stare at every symbol. Aeris draws charts with its own Rust chart engine, which recalculates indicators on every incoming trade rather than on a timer, so a fast move shows up in your indicators as it happens.
Two features are worth singling out. Linked split layouts let several charts follow one symbol selection, and bar replay plays historical sessions back so you can practice decisions without risking money. Aeris includes both, and its replay mode supports practice trading against the recorded session.
Check whether the data you see is real time or delayed, and who pays the exchange fees. Aeris streams Hyperliquid crypto data free, and futures data through your own Rithmic account, where exchange fees stay between you and your firm or broker.
Order entry, the DOM, and order types
Terminals offer several ways to enter an order. The order ticket is a form: symbol, side, quantity, price. Chart trading lets you place and drag orders directly on the chart, which is natural for stop-loss and take-profit levels; Aeris supports this on simulated accounts. The DOM, short for depth of market, is a price ladder that shows bids below the market and offers above it, with your orders and position marked on it. Clicking a price on the ladder sends an order there, which is the fastest manual method most traders use; the Aeris DOM is built for exactly this click-to-trade workflow.
Order types are the vocabulary of execution:
- Market order: fills now at the best available price.
- Limit order: fills at your price or better, or not at all.
- Stop order: triggers when the market trades at your stop price, then behaves like a market order, so it can fill worse in a fast move.
- Stop-limit order: triggers the same way but converts to a limit, which controls price at the risk of no fill.
- Bracket orders: attach a profit target and a protective stop to an entry, and cancel one when the other fills.
Learn the behavior before live money
Learn the exact behavior of each type in your terminal before trading live, ideally on a simulated account. Slippage, partial fills, and rejected orders are normal market behavior, and the CFTC’s futures basics are a good reminder that leverage magnifies both gains and losses. Aeris practice accounts trade simulated funds on live prices, so the rehearsal is realistic without risking anything.
Risk controls: flatten and the kill switch
Two commands matter more than any other when a session goes wrong:
- Flatten closes your open position immediately, normally by submitting offsetting market orders. It answers the first emergency: get me out.
- The kill switch stops you from trading: it cancels working orders and blocks new ones until you turn it off. It answers the second emergency: stop me from making it worse.
Fast, but not magic
Neither command is magic. A flatten submits orders into the live market, so it can slip or partially fill in a fast move, and a kill switch cannot undo fills that already happened. What they do is remove hesitation. Instead of closing three legs and canceling five orders by hand, you press one button and deal with the result. Aeris ships both on every plan, including the free one, because risk controls should never be an upgrade.
If you trade a prop-firm account, treat these controls as part of your risk management, not a substitute for it. The firm’s daily loss limit and drawdown are enforced on its side; your job is to stop trading well before the firm has to.
Order-flow tools and workspaces
Beyond standard charts, many terminals offer order-flow tools that show how trades actually executed. Aeris includes each of these:
- Footprint charts break each bar into price levels and print the volume traded at the bid and the ask.
- Delta and cumulative volume delta (CVD) compare aggressive buying with aggressive selling and track that balance over the session, with a per-bar delta histogram beside the curve.
- Big trades mark unusually large prints directly on the chart.
- Time & Sales lists every reported execution as it happens.
Measure first, interpret second
The order-flow glossary defines each of these in plain language, including what they cannot tell you. A word of restraint: order-flow tools summarize what already traded, and no display guarantees what happens next. Add one tool at a time, learn what it measures, and drop any panel you stop reading.
Workspaces are the other half of daily comfort. Active traders rarely watch one chart. A workspace saves a whole arrangement: which symbols, which chart types, which indicators, and where each window sits across your monitors. Aeris workspaces use linked split layouts, so one click retargets a chart, a DOM, and a tape at the same symbol, and the interface is translated into 10 languages. If you evaluate any terminal, build the layout you would actually trade from and count the clicks.
Desktop, browser, or broker app
Terminals come in three forms, and the tradeoffs are real:
- Native desktop apps install on your computer, use the machine’s full performance for charts and hotkeys, and keep working layouts locally. Aeris is one, built for Windows 10 and 11 and macOS with Apple silicon, with Linux coming soon.
- Browser platforms run anywhere with no install, which is convenient, but a tab competes with everything else in the browser and hotkeys are limited.
- Broker-bundled apps, such as Schwab’s thinkorswim for its clients, are free with the account and tightly integrated with that broker, but only work with that broker.
A calm look at latency and data
Latency deserves a calm look. What matters for a home trader is a stable connection and a data path with few hops, not shaving microseconds. Execution quality depends far more on your connection, the market’s speed, and your order types than on the terminal alone. Be skeptical of any platform that promises fills, and prefer one that is honest about what happens when the network drops.
Data follows the same pattern. Ask where quotes come from, whether depth is included, and who pays exchange fees. A terminal that connects to your own Rithmic account, as Aeris does, uses the data entitlements your firm or broker already pays for, instead of reselling you a second feed.
What to look for when choosing
No terminal is best for everyone. Match the software to the markets you trade, the connection your account uses, and the way you make decisions. Run through this checklist with any candidate:
- Markets and connection: does it cover your markets, and does it support the connection your broker or prop firm gave you, such as Rithmic?
- Charting: the chart types, indicators, drawing tools, alerts, and replay you actually use, at a price you can sustain.
- Order entry: ticket, chart trading, and a DOM, with the order types and brackets you rely on, all testable on a simulated account first.
- Risk controls: a flatten button and a kill switch you can reach instantly, on every plan you would consider.
- Cost: the platform price plus data and exchange fees, not the platform price alone.
Where Aeris fits
Aeris is the terminal we built to this checklist, and the running example above is literal: every capability named in this guide is in the app today. It is a native desktop terminal for Windows and macOS with its own Rust chart engine, covering futures through your Rithmic account and crypto through Hyperliquid’s free public data. Charts, indicators, drawing tools, linked split layouts, and price alerts sit beside footprint charts, CVD, per-bar delta, big trades, Time & Sales, and a click-to-trade DOM.
Trading is free to practice and free to start: chart trading with stop-loss and take-profit runs on simulated accounts, bar replay includes practice trading, and live futures orders route through your own Rithmic account. Flatten and the kill switch are on every plan, including the $0 Free plan, and offline trading reports let you review sessions without sending data anywhere. Pro is $39 per month and Prop is $69 per month, with yearly discounts; the pricing page lists exactly what each tier adds.
Where Aeris does not fit, we say so: it does not chart stocks or forex, it does not run Pine Script, and it has no social community. The download page has the installers, and the comparison pages show the same facts side by side with the platforms you may already know.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
Primary sources checked November 4, 2026.