Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Gain Capital, the second largest forex broker in the US by retail trading volume and client assets, reported on Thursday it maintained its downward trend in trading volumes from global operations in April 2016 on a monthly and yearly basis, alike. The broker’s retail and institutional volumes have been declining since the start of the year. The broker’s retail trading volume from over-the-counter (OTC) operations fell 5% on the month to $12.2 billion last month, posting an annual drop of more than 30%. Institutional trading volume in the electronic communication network (ECN) broking segment amounted to $163.2 billion in April, which is 3.5% lower than in March and 2.9% less than a year earlier.
Following are details about Gain Capital’s monthly retail and institutional trading volumes in 2016:
Retail trading volume | Y/Y change | Institutional trading volume | Y/Y change | |
January | $318.7 billion | -0.05% | $188.5 billion | 15.4% |
February | $276.3 billion | 13.1% | $174.0 billion | 31.3% |
March | $266.7 billion | -3.5% | $169.1 billion | -15.4% |
April | $255.8 billion | -33.4% | $163.2 billion | -2.9% |
The broker’s daily retail trading volume averaged $12.2 billion in April, while its institutional average daily volume was $7.8 billion per day, each posting a monthly increase of more than 5%. Compared to the same period a year earlier, the retail value posted a decline of 30%, while the institutional volume was up 1.7%.
For the institutional segment, Gain Capital also publisjed data about the swap dealer activity, which had an average daily trading volume of $3.3 billion, or a monthly total of $69.7 billion. Meanwhile, it handled 766,254 futures contracts in April, or on average 36,488 per day.
The broker handled 140,286 active retail OTC accounts last month, whis represents a slight increase of 2.7% on the month, yet a drop of 4.4% year-on-year.
The on-going worsening in trading metrics come as a surprise, considering Gain Capital’s improving financial results for Q1 2016. Its main competitor, Forex Capital Markets, or FXCM, is expected to announce on 6 May its financial performance data for January-March and its April trading metrics. Judging by their past performance, FXCM is expected to maintain its leading position in regards to trading volume.
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
