CFD Industry Survey Reveals Germany and Australia as Only Regions with CFD Client Growth

The Australian CFD market is performing with more resilience compared to most other geographical regions around the world. In a recently published research report titled “2014 Australia CFD Report”, Investment Trends has identified several interesting trends predominating in the global retail FX and CFD industries.

"We have identified two key findings", Irene Guiamatsia, an Analyst at Investment Trends explained to Forex Magnates. "One is that the Australian CFD market has resisted a global trend of worsening trading metrics and client numbers, the second is the sustained take-up of mobile trading platforms in Asia."

In the report published on September 19th, Investment Trends states: “The number of CFD traders in most of the countries studied by Investment Trends fell in the previous 12 months but the Australian CFD market bucked this trend." Adding, “Against a backdrop of lukewarm investor sentiment and low Volatility levels, trader numbers increased slightly to 42,000 people that traded CFDs at least once in the 12 months leading to June 2014.”

Investment Trends conducts surveys in the U.K., Australia, France, Germany, the U.S, Hong Kong and Singapore, covering both FX and CFD industries. The 2014 Australia CFD Report is an in-depth study of Australian CFD traders’ attitudes and investing habits, based on a survey of 12,398 investors conducted between April 28 and June 22, 2014.

The survey reports that in terms of raw client numbers, the Australian CFD market has grown by 2% over the past 12 months, while U.K. spread betting, U.K. CFDs, France CFDs and Singapore CFDs all reported losses in trader numbers.

The most resilient countries in terms of participation growth, in light of low volatility and subdued trading volumes are Germany (+5%) and Australia (+2%). The worst performing countries are Singapore (-23%) and the U.K. CFD industries (-16%) respectively.

Market Share

In terms of market share, Investment Trends estimates that IG Index is being used by 33% of traders as their primary executing broker and an estimated 38% of Aussie CFD traders have an IG account. It is estimated that IG Index holds an approximate 33% market share of the Australian CFD market overall.

Mobile Trading

As previously reported by Forex Magnates, mobile trading is continuing its surge across the globe and Asia in particular. The adoption of mobile trading increased slightly in Australia with 72% (up 2% pts) of current CFD traders using a mobile platform in relation to trading. This is a moderate level among the countries examined by Investment Trends, behind Singapore CFDs (82%), UK CFDs (73%) and UK Spread Betting (72%).

Mobile trading usage numbers have surged among frequent traders (30+ trades per month) with "33% of frequent traders using a smartphone/tablet as their main means of CFD trading, more than doubling from 15% last year," according to Ms. Guiamatsia.

Naming Names

In terms of overall client satisfaction, FP Markets received the highest client ratings while FXCM scored highest on education, platform features and research tools offered".

IG currently has the highest rated mobile app, while FXCM scored the largest improvement in mobile trading (now ranking 2^nd, up from 4^th).