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Gain Capital, the second largest forex brokerage in the US in terms of trading volume and retail client assets, saw its forex trading volumes from both retail and institutional operations continue to decrease in March both over the month and on an annual basis, the broker reported on Monday in a notice regarding its preliminary monthly metrics from global operations.
Its retail over-the-counter (OTC) trading volume went down to $266.7 billion in March 2016, which is a decline of 3.5% from the previous month and 19.5% from a year earlier. The broker’s trading volume from institutional forex operations also decreased by 2.8% on the month and 15.4% over the year to $169.1 billion last month.
The average daily trading volume from retail clients dropped significantly to $11.6 billion in March by 11.9% month-on-month 2016 and 23.0% over the year, while that in the institutional segment dropped by a monthly 11.2% and by 19.1% on the year to $7.4 billion. The averate volume from swap dealer activities very slightly higher on the month at $64.3 billion in March, which is an annual drop of 30.6%. The daily swap dealer volume averaged $2.8 billion.
Active retail OTC clients amounted to 136,559 last month, which is 5.0% lower than in the previous month. However, compared to the same period a year earlier, the figure represens a jump of 37.9%. Meanwhile, active futures accounts were 8,890 in March, or slightly up by 0.8% from February and by an annual 3.8%.
The broker also presented information about futures operations. In March, it handled 782,352 futures contracts, or an average 35,561 per day. Although the total is 5.7% higher than in February, the daily values represent a decrease of 3.9% over the month.
Despite the lower trading volumes, Gain Capital saw an improvement in its financial performance.
“The increase in volatility we saw in the latter half of Q4 2015 continued into Q1 2016 which resulted in GAIN’s retail revenue per million tracking roughly 10% above our Q4 2015 levels,” the broker’s CEO, Glenn Stevens, said. “In addition, retail volume generated from the indirect business represented 46% of total retail OTC trading volume in the quarter,” he added.
Its main competitor, Forex Capital Markets, or FXCM, is yet to announce its trading metrics for March, but judging by their past performance, FXCM is expected to maintain its leading position.
New Jersey-based GAIN Capital has global presence across 180 countries in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. The broker serves retail and institutional clients alike on the exchange-traded and OTC markets.
The brokerage offers trading in forex, commodities, bonds, indices, and global equities, among others. It operates under the trading brands Forex.com and City Index for retail clients and GTX and Gain Capital for institutional operations.
The brokerage has, through its subsidiaries, licenses from the relevant authorities in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.
Source: Gain Capital