Does Web Traffic Actually Drive CFD Volumes? We Ran the Numbers

Conventional wisdom in brokerage marketing holds that more website traffic means more business. A dataset from the newly launched fmintelligence portal puts that assumption to rest.

Across 47 retail forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term and CFD brokers, the correlation between organic web traffic and actual trading volumes comes in at just 0.09 - statistically, almost nothing. The data, which pairs January 2026 traffic figures with recent average monthly CFD volumes, suggests that the two metrics are essentially measuring different things entirely.

Traffic Is Booming, Just Not Evenly

The sector's total organic traffic hit 40.2 million visits in January 2026, up 36.5% from 29.4 million a year earlier. On the surface, that looks like broad-based growth. Dig in, and the picture is more divided: 57% of brokers gained visitors year-over-year, while 36% shed them. The top five brokers alone now account for almost 74% of all organic visits, up from 69% in January 2025.

OANDA leads Leads Leads or lead generation are an essential component of marketing and powerful tool by brokers. In its simplest form, leads can be defined as the outreach of customer interest or enquiry into products or services, most often associated with brokerages.These can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition, or for sales leads. Amongst marketers, such lists are one of their most important assets and instrumental to sales.There are a variety of methods for generating Leads or lead generation are an essential component of marketing and powerful tool by brokers. In its simplest form, leads can be defined as the outreach of customer interest or enquiry into products or services, most often associated with brokerages.These can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition, or for sales leads. Amongst marketers, such lists are one of their most important assets and instrumental to sales.There are a variety of methods for generating Read this Term the traffic rankings, eToro follows and Capital.com posted the most visible climb of any large broker.

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All of this is happening at a time when the number of active CFD accounts jumped by nearly one million in a single quarter, reaching almost 7 million by the end of 2025, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence data.

Volume Leaders Live in a Different World

However, swap the ranking criteria from traffic to trading volume, and the leaderboard barely overlaps.

IC Markets tops the volume table with $1.76 trillion in average monthly activity, yet ranks fifth by web traffic. OANDA, by contrast, pulls in 14.6 million visitors to generate $430 billion in volume.

CMC Markets and Plus500 tell another story worth noting. Both saw traffic fall, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence data, yet both held onto substantial trading volumes positioning among top 10 brokers. Client retention, it turns out, doesn't depend on Google rankings.

The Full Picture Is on fmintelligence

This is only part of what the data shows. The full analysis - covering all 47 brokers, traffic-to-volume efficiency ratios, business model breakdowns, and year-over-year growth patterns across broker size tiers, is available on the newly launched fmintelligence portal.

Registration is free, and the platform gives access to broker volume data, traffic metrics, and in-depth industry research that goes well beyond what any single article can cover.

We've recently also written about how much total CFD trading volume MetaTrader 5 holds, we analyzed India, and we examined how regional internet traffic is shifting among retail traders