Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The total amount of retail client deposits of forex brokers in the US slightly increased by 0.7% over the month to some $523.7 million in November, reaching the highest so far in 2016, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). However, if compared to a year earlier, in November brokers posted a drop of 8.3%.
Even though the month was a good one for forex brokers, and in fact the best one this year, the overall amount of retail client deposits in the US was still below the lowest monthly reported in 2015 of $544.1 million. In comparison, the lowest reported monthly value in 2016 was $493.2 million and was registered in April.
One reason the US retail forex market is not performing as well as before is that the number of brokers that operate there has shrunk. Tough regulatory restrictions hinder the market’s growth.
Brokers’ positions in November in terms of retail forex funds deposited with them have not changed compared to the preceding month. Forex Capital Markets, or FXCM, continues to be a leader with deposits amounting to $178.4 million. Next on the list were Oanda Corp. and Gain Capital with client assets of $134.1 million and $129.9 million, respectively. All three brokers saw an increase, even though a slight one, from a month earlier. However, compared to a year earlier Oanda was the only one of the three to post a growth and a significant one of close to 33%. The company acquired earlier in 2016 the US clients of peer IBFX which exited the market.
Interactive Brokers registered in November a double-digit drop in client assets both over the month and year-on-year. The broker had to discontinue offering leveraged forex trading services to US retail clients with less than $10 million in deposited assets as of 1 September due to regulatory requirements.
Meanwhile, the assets of forex clients deposited with TD AMERITRADE Futures&Forex, part of multi-asset brokerage TD Ameritrade, have been progressively growing. The company obtained the last needed authorization documents to provide retail forex services in February and launched forex operations in March.
More details about the US market’s retail forex deposits statistics for November 2016 follow:
Forex broker | Total retail forex obligation Nov ‘16 | Total retail forex obligation Oct ‘16 | M/M change | Total retail forex obligation Nov ’15 | Y/Y change |
Forex Capital Markets LLC | $178,375,472 | $175,572,998 | +1.6% | $188,305,336 | -5.3% |
Gain Capital Group LLC | $129,889,181 | $127,661,648 | +1.7% | $136,612,728 | -4.9% |
IBFX INC | – | – | – | $51,645,473 | – |
Interactive Brokers LLC | $30,753,727 | $35,288,042 | -12.9% | $45,621,933 | -32.6% |
Oanda Corporation | $134,087,268 | $133,771,911 | +0.2% | $100,976,464 | +32.8% |
Wedbush Securities INC | – | – | – | $47,777,572 | – |
TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex LLC | $50,575,904 | $48,012,412 | +5.3% | – | – |
TOTAL | $523,681,552 | $520,307,011 | +0.7 | $570,939,506 | -8.3% |