FXCM enjoys its last month atop US Retail Forex client stats

US retail forex market

The CFTC has published US retail forex broker data for the month of January 2017, indicating a slight 1.3% rise in assets held by US retail forex traders to $532 million, up from $523 million in December 2016.

Continuing to lead the way in December was FXCM, now a unit of the recently rebranded Global Brokerage Inc (NASDAQ:GLBR). FXCM client assets were $183.4 million in January, up from $178.9 million.

However all (or at least most) of those assets moved during the month of February to rival Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP) and its Forex.com unit. When next months stats come out, that should allow Gain Capital to leapfrog over current #2 Oanda to take over as the clear #1 in US retail forex. Gain actually reported on January 27 that it had transferred over 47,000 accounts with total assets of approximately $142 million from FXCM.

FXCM was fined $7 million and forced to exit the US forex market in February, with now ex-CEO Drew Niv also banned from the industry, in settlement of charges of long-term defrauding of customers about the true nature of FXCM’s supposed no-dealing-desk execution model. FXCM then quickly turned around and sold its US client base to Gain Capital (for no money up front, on a max $500 per client CPA basis). Several days later Drew Niv resigned.

Bringing up the rear were TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE: AMTD) and Interactive Brokers Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBKR), each with less that 10% market share.

CFTC US retail forex client asset data for the month of January 2017:

FOREX CAPITAL MARKETS LLC $183,422,554
OANDA CORPORATION 134,545,222
GAIN CAPITAL GROUP LLC 126,888,959
TD AMERITRADE FUTURES & FOREX LLC 50,972,744
INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC 36,585,526
   
Total $532,415,005
   

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