The retail
FX and CFD sector's growth between Q4 2021 and Q4 2025 was measurable across
every dimension. Monthly trading volume across 52 tracked brokers rose from
$7.1 trillion to $19.5 trillion, a 173% increase over four years.
Active
accounts doubled, from 2.35 million to 4.69 million. Yet the share of combined
volume held by the five largest brokers moved by just 0.2 percentage points,
from 38.4% to 38.2%, within the margin of rounding, according to FM Intelligence.
Access the
Full FM Intelligence Report: Top 5 Retail CFD Brokers - Same Volume Share, New
Names
Retail CFD Top Five Hold
38% Volume Share After Four Years
An FM
Intelligence review
of the five defining trends in CFD for 2025, published in December, found that three
brokers had already crossed the $1 trillion monthly volume mark by Q3 of that
year, a threshold that only IC Markets had consistently held in prior periods.
That pre-announcement of the shift at the top of the rankings is now confirmed
in the Q4 data.
Only IC
Markets and IG Group retained their top-five positions across the full four
years. Their volumes grew substantially, IC Markets from $913 billion to $1.76
trillion and IG Group from $749 billion to $1.56 trillion, but both lost
individual market share as the broader sample expanded faster.
The three
brokers that joined them in Q4 2025, EC Markets at $1.49 trillion, TMGM at
$1.39 trillion, and JustMarkets at $1.24 trillion, replaced Plus500, Saxo Bank,
and GAIN Capital, each of which grew in absolute terms but was outpaced. TMGM's
volume rose 578% from its Q4 2021 level of $205 billion.
FM
Intelligence noted
that EC Markets and JustMarkets were absent from the 2021 dataset, which limits
direct comparison for both brokers.
XTB Builds a Client Base
Larger Than the Entire 2021 Top Five
Volume
concentration held flat. Client concentration did not. The top five brokers by
active accounts raised their combined share from 31.5% to 36.7% across the
four-year period, a 5.2 percentage point increase that FM Intelligence
attributed almost entirely to XTB.
The Polish
fintech's active account base grew from 127,000 in Q4 2021 to 850,000 in Q4
2025, a 569% increase, moving the broker from fifth place to first and giving
it 18.1% of total tracked accounts. By Q4 2025, XTB alone held more accounts
than the entire 2021 top five combined.
XTB added
864,000 clients in full-year 2025, a pace its chief executive described as unprecedented in the company's
two-decade history. The broker's expansion into stock and ETF fractional
investing across European markets accompanied the growth in its client count.
The other four brokers in the Q4 2025 accounts top five, EC Markets, IC
Markets, JustMarkets, and D Prime, each held between 4.2% and 4.9%.
Active CFD
accounts across the industry exceeded 6 million by Q4 2025, defying the usual seasonal
slowdown, FM Intelligence reported in February. A separate FM
Intelligence
analysis published the same month estimated that retail trading
Retail Trading
In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade
In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade
Read this Term demand hit a record in early 2026,
up 25% from the prior peak.
Average
monthly volume per 1,000 active accounts across the 52-broker sample rose 38%,
from $3.0 billion in Q4 2021 to $4.2 billion in Q4 2025, indicating that
trading activity outpaced client growth. The ratio varied sharply across the
top brokers: TMGM generated $11.7 billion per 1,000 accounts, IC Markets $7.8
billion, and XTB $0.6 billion, a gap FM Intelligence attributed to
differences in client profile, product mix, and trading frequency.
The
complete broker-by-broker breakdown, methodology disclosure, and full
concentration metrics from this analysis are available on the FM Intelligence
portal.
The retail
FX and CFD sector's growth between Q4 2021 and Q4 2025 was measurable across
every dimension. Monthly trading volume across 52 tracked brokers rose from
$7.1 trillion to $19.5 trillion, a 173% increase over four years.
Active
accounts doubled, from 2.35 million to 4.69 million. Yet the share of combined
volume held by the five largest brokers moved by just 0.2 percentage points,
from 38.4% to 38.2%, within the margin of rounding, according to FM Intelligence.
Access the
Full FM Intelligence Report: Top 5 Retail CFD Brokers - Same Volume Share, New
Names
Retail CFD Top Five Hold
38% Volume Share After Four Years
An FM
Intelligence review
of the five defining trends in CFD for 2025, published in December, found that three
brokers had already crossed the $1 trillion monthly volume mark by Q3 of that
year, a threshold that only IC Markets had consistently held in prior periods.
That pre-announcement of the shift at the top of the rankings is now confirmed
in the Q4 data.
Only IC
Markets and IG Group retained their top-five positions across the full four
years. Their volumes grew substantially, IC Markets from $913 billion to $1.76
trillion and IG Group from $749 billion to $1.56 trillion, but both lost
individual market share as the broader sample expanded faster.
The three
brokers that joined them in Q4 2025, EC Markets at $1.49 trillion, TMGM at
$1.39 trillion, and JustMarkets at $1.24 trillion, replaced Plus500, Saxo Bank,
and GAIN Capital, each of which grew in absolute terms but was outpaced. TMGM's
volume rose 578% from its Q4 2021 level of $205 billion.
FM
Intelligence noted
that EC Markets and JustMarkets were absent from the 2021 dataset, which limits
direct comparison for both brokers.
XTB Builds a Client Base
Larger Than the Entire 2021 Top Five
Volume
concentration held flat. Client concentration did not. The top five brokers by
active accounts raised their combined share from 31.5% to 36.7% across the
four-year period, a 5.2 percentage point increase that FM Intelligence
attributed almost entirely to XTB.
The Polish
fintech's active account base grew from 127,000 in Q4 2021 to 850,000 in Q4
2025, a 569% increase, moving the broker from fifth place to first and giving
it 18.1% of total tracked accounts. By Q4 2025, XTB alone held more accounts
than the entire 2021 top five combined.
XTB added
864,000 clients in full-year 2025, a pace its chief executive described as unprecedented in the company's
two-decade history. The broker's expansion into stock and ETF fractional
investing across European markets accompanied the growth in its client count.
The other four brokers in the Q4 2025 accounts top five, EC Markets, IC
Markets, JustMarkets, and D Prime, each held between 4.2% and 4.9%.
Active CFD
accounts across the industry exceeded 6 million by Q4 2025, defying the usual seasonal
slowdown, FM Intelligence reported in February. A separate FM
Intelligence
analysis published the same month estimated that retail trading
Retail Trading
In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade
In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade
Read this Term demand hit a record in early 2026,
up 25% from the prior peak.
Average
monthly volume per 1,000 active accounts across the 52-broker sample rose 38%,
from $3.0 billion in Q4 2021 to $4.2 billion in Q4 2025, indicating that
trading activity outpaced client growth. The ratio varied sharply across the
top brokers: TMGM generated $11.7 billion per 1,000 accounts, IC Markets $7.8
billion, and XTB $0.6 billion, a gap FM Intelligence attributed to
differences in client profile, product mix, and trading frequency.
The
complete broker-by-broker breakdown, methodology disclosure, and full
concentration metrics from this analysis are available on the FM Intelligence
portal.
