Webull is doubling down on futures—and it wants enterprise-grade plumbing under the hood. The online brokerage’s Singapore arm has tapped CQG, a long-established trading-tech provider, to supply global order-routing and infrastructure for its new futures offering.

It’s a familiar pairing: CQG already supports Webull’s futures rollouts in Hong Kong and Malaysia. But the Singapore integration marks a strategic expansion into one of Asia’s most active trading hubs, where futures interest has surged among both retail and professional investors.

This is the kind of behind-the-scenes partnership that rarely generates splashy headlines but tends to influence the competitive trajectory of a market. In this case, the implications are sizable: bigger players are now building “institutional-grade infrastructure for retail-first platforms,” a trend reshaping the brokerage landscape worldwide.

Why This Matters

The futures market in Singapore has been heating up. Exchanges like SGX have seen growing volumes in equity index, commodities, and FX derivatives, driven by regional volatility and global macro uncertainty. Retail traders—particularly those coming from equities and options—are increasingly seeking access to futures tools once reserved for pros.

That’s where CQG enters the picture. Known for high-performance routing, low-latency connectivity, and a wide broker network, it gives Webull Singapore the kind of backbone more commonly found in institutional trading desks. In the battle among retail brokers to expand product offerings beyond stocks and options, these capabilities are becoming table stakes.

“Given CQG is also partnering with other Webull entities in the Asia-Pacific region, our integration has been seamless,” said Jonathan Man, CEO of Webull Singapore. The message is clear: Webull wants consistency across markets, and CQG has done this dance before.

What’s notable is how Webull is moving. Many brokers expand by launching new front-end tools or flashy marketing campaigns. Webull is first reinforcing the substrate—its execution infrastructure—suggesting the firm understands that latency, reliability, and routing efficiency are now differentiators in a hyper-competitive fintech environment.

The Competitive Angle

Webull’s push mirrors broader moves among fintech brokers seeking to diversify revenues and attract more active traders. Robinhood expanded into futures in 2024. Interactive Brokers continues to add regional contracts. Tiger Brokers and moomoo are investing heavily in Asia-Pacific derivatives access.

What separates Webull here is speed and scale. Its simultaneous rollouts across Hong Kong, Malaysia, and now Singapore hint at an accelerated APAC expansion strategy—one positioned against incumbents whose platforms often feel heavyweight compared to Webull’s consumer-friendly interface.

But none of that works without a sturdy backend. Futures demand a different architecture than equities: more complex margining, stricter pre-trade risk controls, exchange-specific routing, and tick-by-tick data ingestion. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Webull is effectively renting CQG’s.

As CQG APAC President Ben Soong put it, “Singapore is an especially active market of investors with a growing appetite for futures trading.” Translation: this is a market worth winning—and you don’t win it with entry-level infrastructure.

How the Integration Works

While both companies kept technical specifics private, several functions are already confirmed:

• Order Routing: Direct connectivity to major global futures exchanges.
• Pre-Trade Risk Management: Controls designed to prevent fat-finger errors and margin overruns.
• Broker-Network Access: Immediate access to CQG’s broad marketplace of global FCMs.
• Latency-Sensitive Connectivity: Appealing to active traders who depend on fast fills and stable execution.

This is particularly important for Singapore-based customers trading CME crude, SGX FTSE China A50 index futures, HKEX Hang Seng contracts, or various APAC FX futures—products where split-second routing and stable uptime can determine profitability.

John Co, CQG’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia, framed it as a template for global retail firms: “Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore all utilizing our technology…is a powerful example of how the world’s most successful retail trading firms rely on CQG’s infrastructure as the foundation for their futures offerings.”

In other words, CQG does the heavy lifting; Webull keeps the interface sleek.

What’s Changing for Traders

Webull customers in Singapore won’t see CQG logos or dashboards—this is plumbing, not UI. But they will feel it in practice:

• More stable futures executions during high-volatility sessions.
• Faster routing to global markets.
• A smoother transition for multi-asset traders shifting from equities and options into derivatives.
• Potential access to more contract types as Webull expands its catalog using CQG’s connectivity.

For retail traders, the most consequential upgrade may be reliability. Futures markets—particularly in the US and Asia—tend to generate wild order-flow surges during macro events. Brokers without robust infrastructure often show strain during those moments, creating slippage headaches for users. CQG’s involvement should reduce those bottlenecks.

A Broader Shift in Retail Brokerage Strategy

If the 2010s were about zero-commission stock trading, the 2020s are shaping up to be the decade of multi-asset access. To compete globally, brokers need futures, FX, options, crypto, and structured products—all with institutional-grade performance expectations.

The Webull–CQG partnership fits that script. It signals maturity for retail-first platforms that previously lacked heavy technical investments, and it puts pressure on rivals to shore up their infrastructures as well.

Meanwhile, established institutional platforms—think TT, Interactive Brokers, NinjaTrader—face a new wave of challenger brands offering slicker UX while outsourcing the backend to firms like CQG. The lines between retail and institutional trading ecosystems are blurring fast.

The Road Ahead

For now, Webull Singapore’s futures debut is the headline. But the broader takeaway is how Webull is shaping itself into a pan-APAC multi-asset brokerage supported by professional-grade tech. This approach could accelerate the region’s shift toward self-directed, globally connected retail trading—once a niche, now a mainstream trend fed by rising market literacy and mobile-first access.

Look for Webull to expand contract availability, regional clearing relationships, and possibly even futures options if early adoption is strong. And don’t be surprised if more APAC markets soon join the Hong Kong–Malaysia–Singapore lineup.

CQG, meanwhile, solidifies its role as the go-to infrastructure provider for fintech firms scaling derivatives access. With rising cross-border demand and a fragmented exchange landscape, its value proposition only grows stronger.

In short: Webull is arming up for the next stage of APAC competition, and CQG is the engine it’s bolting under the hood.