American FX giant GAIN Capital Holdings (NYSE:GCAP) today reported certain operating metrics for the month of May 2014.

In terms of retail OTC trading volume, a small glimmer of hope that the low volumes which have prevailed since the beginning of the year has begun to appear, with total retail trading volume amounting to $175.9 billion, an increase of 0.9% from April 2014 and an increase of 9.0% from May 2013.

Average daily retail OTC trading volume for May was $8.0 billion, representing another increase of 0.9% from April 2014 and an increase of 13.9% from May 2013.

Active retail OTC accounts stood at 95,205, a decrease of 0.9% from April 2014 and an increase of 48.7% from May 2013.

Futures contracts of 550,666, a decrease of 14.2% from April 2014 and an increase of 16.8% from May 2013.

Average daily futures contracts of 25,030, a decrease of 14.2% from April 2014 and an increase of 22.1% from May 2013.

Total funded accounts[3] of 135,717, an increase of 0.6% from April 2014 and an increase of 34.8% from May 2013.

The real increase over the previous months of 2014 has been May's institutional volumes, which were up from April 2014 by 11.7% at $456.9 billion, and 19.4% than May 2013.

Similarly, GAIN Capital achieved an average daily institutional volume of $20.8 billion, which is an increase of 11.7% from April 2014 and an increase of 24.8% from May 2013.

GTX trading volume stood at $420.7 billion, showing an increase of 13.8% from April 2014 and an increase of 9.9% from May 2013, and the average daily GTX volume for May this year was $19.1 billion, an increase of 13.8% from April 2014 and an increase of 14.9% from May 2013.

On the retail side, a small, but no doubt very welcome step in the right direction whilst institutional volumes are returning to form, substantially higher than those achieved during the industry-wide high points of last summer, boding well for shareholders, who have experienced a static dividend payment for some considerable time, at 2.62%.