FXCM, Gain Capital’s June 2016 retail trading volumes dive y/y

The latest monthly metrics reports of US forex brokers Forex Capital Markets, or FXCM, and Gain Capital, the operator of Forex.com, indicated the two brokers are not performing fairly well. Although the trading volume from retail operations of FXCM slight went down by 2% over the monthly, and that of Gain Capital posted a monthly increase of 3.7%, the two brokers saw a double-digit drop on an annual basis.

Compared to a year earlier, FXCM’s retail trading volume fell by 24% to $275 billion. The broker handled 585,295 retail client trades per day in June, which is a higher number both over the month (+6%) and year-on-year (+4%), but this was not enough to help it increase its volume to levels close to those it generated a year earlier. We should keep in mind, however, that this year’s metrics do not include data about FXCM Japan and FXCM Hong Kong, which the broker sold to its Japanese peer Rakuten Securities in August 2015.

The annual drop in retail trading volumes of Gain Capital was even higher at 43.7% to $231.7 billion in June. Despite the significant drop, Gain Capital still falls behind its peer FXCM.

However, while for FXCM retail operations make up the majority of its total volumes, Gain Capital’s retail business is closer in volume to its institutional operations. Both brokers saw significant growth in volumes from institutional clients in June, both month-on-month and on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, the latest report of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) indicated that after a monthly increase of 8.1%, FXCM continued to lead the US market by retail forex deposits in May 2016. The broker held $182.1 million in client deposits, or 5.4% higher than in the same period a year earlier. Gain Capital also posted an increase to $130.5 million in the period under review, which is up by 3.6% from the preceding month and 14.7% over the year.

Source: FXCM/Gain Capital/CFTC