A trader who wants to short the Nasdaq after a hot CPI print, hedge in gold and keep a Bitcoin position running over the weekend does not want three logins. Yet that's what a surprising amount of trading infrastructure still implies: platforms designed in a forex-only era, asset classes added later as bolt-ons, data feeds contracted per class from different vendors, and a symbol list that reflects the firm's procurement history rather than its traders' demand.
eTrader treats multi-asset as the baseline, not the upgrade. Forex, metals, indices and crypto trade in one account, on one terminal, streaming from one included feed — and the firm controls every instrument individually from the eTrader Broker dashboard. Here's what that means in practice, and why it changes both the trader's experience and the owner's economics.
What's in the Box
Out of the box, eTrader covers the four groups that make up virtually all retail CFD volume:
- Forex — majors, minors and crosses, the core book of any broker or prop firm.
- Metals — gold and silver above all; XAUUSD is many firms' single most-traded symbol and behaves like nothing else on the board.
- Indices — US500, NAS100 and peers, the instruments traders reach for around macro releases and earnings seasons.
- Crypto — BTC, ETH and the liquid names, trading around the clock and pulling in a demographic that never opened a forex account.
All of it streams live from the 70ms-updated data feed included free with the platform — one of the quiet advantages of the model. A firm assembling a legacy stack typically negotiates market data separately, sometimes per asset class, each contract with its own bill and renewal. With eTrader there is no data contract to source at all; prices for every class are simply there on day one. The wider economics of that are covered in why the data feed is included.
Per-instrument Feed Management: The Owner's Control Layer
Included doesn't mean locked. From the eTrader Broker dashboard, the firm manages data feeds per instrument — the included feed where it serves you well, your own sources plugged in wherever you prefer them. A firm with a strong crypto liquidity relationship can feed its crypto symbols from that source while indices and FX ride the included feed; a desk with exchange data for indices can wire that in without touching anything else.
This granularity extends across the instrument model. Spreads and markups are controlled per group, exposure is monitored live, and A-book / B-book routing is decided per group, per instrument and per trader — hedge your crypto flow to a liquidity provider while warehousing FX majors, or the reverse, and let the intelligent auto-routing engine switch dynamically as behaviour changes. Multi-asset isn't just a longer symbol list; it's the ability to run a different risk posture per asset class from one dashboard. How that routing engine thinks is its own topic — see A-book vs B-book for the fundamentals.
The test to run on any platform: ask not "which assets can you list?" but "can I change the feed source, the spread and the routing for one instrument without a support ticket?" If instrument control requires vendor intervention, every product decision you make will move at your vendor's pace, not yours.
Why Multi-Asset Is a Retention Strategy, Not a Feature
The commercial case is straightforward: traders who can express every idea inside your platform have no reason to open an account elsewhere. Macro weeks push volume into indices and gold; crypto rallies pull in new depositors; quiet FX ranges send traders looking for movement somewhere else on the board. A single-asset firm loses those flows to a competitor. A multi-asset firm captures them — in the same account whose balance, equity and history stay synced across web, desktop and the native iOS and Android apps (coming soon).
For prop firms the logic is even sharper. Challenge buyers increasingly expect indices and metals in the evaluation, and the rules engine has to understand them: exposure caps per instrument, lot-size variance and drawdown rules all behave differently on NAS100 than on EURUSD. Because eTrader syncs positions to the Prop Firm CRM rules engine every 500ms across all asset classes, a firm can set per-instrument exposure limits that actually reflect each market's character rather than one blunt cap for everything.
One Terminal for All of It
Multi-asset only works if the terminal treats every class as a first-class citizen. eTrader's charting — real-time candles, advanced drawing tools, a deep suite of technical indicators across multiple timeframes — behaves identically whether the symbol is GBPJPY or BTCUSD. Market-hours awareness handles the differences that matter: crypto trades around the clock, indices keep session hours, and the terminal reflects each instrument's real schedule instead of pretending everything is FX. One-tap order entry, live equity and P&L work the same everywhere, so a trader's muscle memory transfers across the whole board. You can see it yourself in any browser at eTrader Web.
The Build-vs-Included Comparison
| Legacy multi-asset build | eTrader | |
|---|---|---|
| Asset coverage | Added per class, often via plugins or extra gateways | FX, metals, indices, crypto out of the box |
| Market data | Contracted separately, sometimes per class | 70ms feed included free, all classes |
| Feed control | Vendor-dependent | Managed per instrument from your dashboard |
| Routing | Bridge and plugin configuration | A/B-book per group, per instrument, per trader |
| Time to add a class | A procurement cycle | Configuration |
"Multi-asset isn't a feature list — it's respect for how people actually trade: FX next to gold next to indices next to crypto, in one account."
— Alex Onta, Executive Director, eTrader & Prop Firm CRM
Key Takeaways
- eTrader ships multi-asset — forex, metals, indices, crypto — in one account and one terminal, with prices from the included 70ms feed.
- Feeds are managed per instrument: use the included feed everywhere, or plug your own sources into exactly the symbols you choose.
- Spreads, markups and A/B-book routing are set per group and per instrument — a different risk posture per asset class, from one dashboard.
- Multi-asset coverage is retention: traders who can trade every idea with you never need a second account elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need Separate Data Contracts for Each Asset Class?
No. The 70ms-updated feed included with eTrader covers forex, metals, indices and crypto with no separate contract. You can additionally plug in your own sources and assign them per instrument whenever you want.
Can I Run Different Routing per Asset Class?
Yes — A-book / B-book decisions are made per group, per instrument and per trader, by hand or via the intelligent auto-routing engine that scores every trader and order in real time and switches dynamically as behaviour changes.
Does Multi-Asset Work for Prop Firm Challenges?
Fully. Positions across all asset classes sync to the Prop Firm CRM rules engine every 500ms, so drawdown, exposure-per-instrument and position-size rules are enforced on indices, metals and crypto exactly as they are on FX.