Aries brings ForecastEx prediction markets to its mobile trading app

Aries has added prediction-market trading to its Aries Mobile app for eligible US customers, offering event contracts tied to the 2026 midterm elections, economic data and financial markets. The contracts are listed and cleared by ForecastEx LLC and offered through Aries Futures LLC.

ForecastEx is a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-designated contract market and clearing organization launched by Interactive Brokers. Aries Futures is a CFTC-registered introducing broker and National Futures Association member, while customer accounts for the service are carried by Advantage Futures LLC.

Customers must apply for a separate event-contract account through Aries Futures, rather than use the securities accounts offered through RAM Financial LLC. Availability depends on the customer, location and individual contract. Aries Financial is the holding company for both RAM Financial and Aries Futures.

Each contract poses a yes-or-no question on a real-world outcome. Buyers and sellers set prices on the exchange, and the contracts consist of separate Yes and No event-based swaps. The side matching the eventual resolved outcome normally pays $1 per contract, while the other pays nothing. Traders can exit a position before resolution by acquiring the opposite contract, and a matched Yes-and-No pair settles for $1 on the following banking business day.

Aries warns that contract prices may reflect market-implied probabilities but can be inaccurate and change quickly. Settlement follows each contract's specified terms and designated source, rather than news coverage or election-night projections. The contracts are neither SIPC-protected nor FDIC-insured.

Trading costs $0.02 per contract, split evenly between Aries Futures and ForecastEx. That makes the fee for 100 contracts $2, excluding the purchase price. Aries also discloses that its $0.01 share gives it an incentive for greater trading volume.

The company is excluding sports, awards and other entertainment contracts. It plans to add event-contract prices to Aries Infinite, its trading workspace, alongside charts, news and positions, and to extend supported market data and authorised order functions to Finance.dev and the Aries MCP server through connected tools.

The expansion comes as prediction markets have grown in the US. In a June rule proposal, the CFTC said trading volume across CFTC-registered prediction markets exceeded $25 billion in 2025, while noting that such markets can provide information on event probabilities and hedging tools for political and macroeconomic risks. The agency also said an exchange offering event contracts to the public as swaps or futures must be registered as a designated contract market and meet applicable listing rules.

The Nov. 3 midterm vote is among the events available through Aries Mobile, allowing customers to monitor contract prices as trading develops during the day.