Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
US forex broker Forex Capital Markets, aka FXCM (NYSE:FXCM), one of the world’s top three retail forex brokers in terms of largest trading volume and the largest US forex broker, reported that the retail customer trading volume in the first quarter of the year was $931 billion. This is 3% less than Q4 2015 and 0.3% less than the first quarter of 2015.
According to the forex broker’s metrics, in March 2016 its retail customer trading volume in March 2016 dropped 6% over the month to $291 billion. It is also 11% lower than in March 2015.
On average, last month the retail trading customer trading volume per day was $12.7 billion, 14% less than in February 2016 and 15% lower over the year. The average number of retail client trades per day also dropped 14% month-on-month to 563 123, but rose 7%, compared to March last year.
The number of active retail client accounts rose insignificantly. They were 214 more, or 0.1%, and reached 175 736 on March 31. Over the year the increase is more notable – 3%. The tradeable accounts (an account with sufficient funds to place a trade in accordance with FXCM trading policies) as of the end of March 2016 were 167 364, 1% more than in the end of February 2015 and 10% less than March 31, 2015.
It is hard to tell with certainty whether the extension of the credit agreement between FXCM and Leucadia announced in early March affected the trust of the retail traders in any way, considering that other major forex brokers, such as Gain Capital, Monex and GMO Click Securities also reported a decrease in their trading volume in March.
At the same time, in March the institutional customers of FXCM generated a trading volume of $83 billion. This represents a significant increase of 57% over the month. Compared to March last year, it is 26% higher. The daily average institutional trading volume, quite logically, also rose. It reached $3.6 billion – 44% higher than in February and 20% higher than in March 2015. FXCM’s institutional clients made an average of 52 551 trades per day, 4% more than in the preceding month. Over the year their number rose the impressive 265%.
Earlier this month the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released the February reports of the US forex brokers. The data placed FXCM on the top position in terms of total client deposits.
