US forex brokers profitability drops in Q1 2012, TradeStation gains most accounts, GFT most profitable

by Michael Greenberg
    US forex brokers profitability drops in Q1 2012, TradeStation gains most accounts, GFT most profitable
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    US retail forex industry was back growing, if only a little, in Q1 2012 and US forex brokers were able to slightly increase the number of their clients. On the other hand overall profitability of clients dropped by 2.8% on average and 1.9% in weighted average for the first time since Q2 2011. Considering that Q1 2012 was not a volatile quarter this is somewhat surprising but then Q3 2011 was very volatile and profitability still increased so the correlation may be low.

    CitiFX Pro revealed its numbers for the first time, just like Interactive Brokers did last quarter, number of accounts is low but when considering the average account size, which is probably as big as what dbFX had: ~$50,000 on average, the overall result is impressive.

    1. CitiFX Pro, Interactive Brokers, ILQ and Advanced Markets aren't considered in the accounts and profitability calculations as their account sizes are either disproportionately big or include other trading instruments (as in Interactive Brokers case)
    2. Weighted average calculates the relative change in profitability to reduce impact of smaller brokers

    See Q4 2011 profitability report here and the Q3 2011 report here.

    US retail forex industry was back growing, if only a little, in Q1 2012 and US forex brokers were able to slightly increase the number of their clients. On the other hand overall profitability of clients dropped by 2.8% on average and 1.9% in weighted average for the first time since Q2 2011. Considering that Q1 2012 was not a volatile quarter this is somewhat surprising but then Q3 2011 was very volatile and profitability still increased so the correlation may be low.

    CitiFX Pro revealed its numbers for the first time, just like Interactive Brokers did last quarter, number of accounts is low but when considering the average account size, which is probably as big as what dbFX had: ~$50,000 on average, the overall result is impressive.

    1. CitiFX Pro, Interactive Brokers, ILQ and Advanced Markets aren't considered in the accounts and profitability calculations as their account sizes are either disproportionately big or include other trading instruments (as in Interactive Brokers case)
    2. Weighted average calculates the relative change in profitability to reduce impact of smaller brokers

    See Q4 2011 profitability report here and the Q3 2011 report here.

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