Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The trading metrics of the largest US forex broker FXCM (NYSE:FXCM) for April were a mixed bag of ups and downs, both between the retail and the institutional traders and when compared to last month and last year.
The retail customer trading volume of FXCM, for example, dropped 1% from March, to $287 billion. Compared to April 2015, it was 6% lower.
The average daily trading volume (ADV) of FXCM’s retail customers, however, rose 8% over the month and reached $13.7 billion. It was 1% lower than that in April last year. On average, every trading day in April, the broker’s customers made 584 753 trades, which is 4% more than in March and 15% more than last April.
The active accounts (an account that has traded at least once in the previous twelve months) were 176 812 as of the last day of last month and also rose: 4% from March 2016 and 2% more than April 2015. The number tradeable accounts (an account with sufficient funds to place a trade in accordance with FXCM trading policies) rose by 1804 (1%) from March this year, but decreased by 19 053 (10%), compared to the end of April 2015.
The situation with the institutional customers of FXCM, compared to April last year, however, is much more optimistic than the retail.
The monthly trading volume, for example, was $75 billion – 83% higher than in April 2015. Compared to March this year, the story is not so rosy and it posted a decrease of 10%. The institutional ADV this past month was $3.5 billion. It is 3% lower than March, but 84% higher than April 2015.
The institutional clients of FXCM made an average of 53 743 trades per day in April. It is 2% higher than March 2016 and the spectacular 383% higher than last April.
The good performance of the institutional segment could be partly due to the relaunching of FXCM’s website for institutional trading FXCMPro.com.
At the same time, FXCM reported relatively stable results for the entire first quarter of 2016, both in terms of operating results and in terms of trading metrics.
