US FCM's Retail Deposits Increase Aug 2012
FX trade volumes witnessed a dismal summer with the largest players such as EBS and Reuter’s experiencing trade downfalls of
FX trade volumes witnessed a dismal summer with the largest players such as EBS and Reuter’s experiencing trade downfalls of 49% and 30% respectively. FCM figures for August show Retail Assets have increased from a month earlier thus giving positive signs for the retail market.
ADM a commodity and derivatives broker seems to be exiting the FX pace as for the second month in a row they have zero retail assets. ADM offers trading on Currenex and might have changed its strategy to deal with professional clients only.
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GFT have somewhat surprising figures, their Retail Forex Funds inceased by 14% despite the firm making major changes with staff redundancies.
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The world’s largest FX broker FXCM saw excellent figures in Retail Forex Funds with an increase of 45% MoM – increase of $112 million which adds to an increase of $86 million the month before. When contacted by Forex Magnates Drew Niv CEO and President of FXCM said that “”It was a good month for growth in client equity, in particular some of our larger clients where we do very well deposited larger sums with us as currency markets became more volatile post-Summer.”
Out of the 17 firms in the list 50% have increased their amount of Retail clients funds and 50% have decreased, FXDD has witnessed a decrease of nearly $2 million (ADM has zero balance).
Forex Magnates quarterly report provides details on Forex broker volumes from across the globe.
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| Jul-12 | Aug-12 | Jul-12 | Aug-12 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted Net Capital | Adjusted Net Capital | Change | Retail Forex Funds | Retail Forex Funds | Change | |
| ADM INVESTOR SERVICES INC | 284,736,953 | 282,918,608 | -1,818,345 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ADVANCED MARKETS LLC | 20,263,069 | 20,198,291 | -64,778 | 602,090 | 530,177 | -71,913 |
| ALPARI (US) LLC | 25,149,030 | 30,142,390 | 4,993,360 | 17,391,612 | 17,040,400 | -351,212 |
| FOREX CAPITAL MARKETS LLC | 52,570,047 | 53,514,906 | 944,859 | 248,324,627 | 360,893,916 | 112,569,289 |
| FOREX CLUB LLC | 22,184,296 | 22,214,537 | 30,241 | 3,393,173 | 3,321,718 | -71,455 |
| FX SOLUTIONS LLC | 28,052,663 | 28,027,637 | -25,026 | 16,843,353 | 16,897,037 | 53,684 |
| FXDIRECTDEALER LLC | 25,918,055 | 24,415,572 | -1,502,483 | 35,873,431 | 33,969,881 | -1,903,550 |
| GAIN CAPITAL GROUP LLC | 57,647,752 | 47,820,014 | -9,827,738 | 100,768,702 | 100,173,898 | -594,804 |
| GLOBAL FUTURES & FOREX LTD | 63,812,667 | 59,125,892 | -4,686,775 | 86,307,508 | 98,977,615 | 12,670,107 |
| IBFX INC | 26,936,337 | 26,477,538 | -458,799 | 71,960,820 | 73,850,907 | 1,890,087 |
| INSTITUTIONAL LIQUIDITY LLC | 20,855,898 | 20,865,942 | 10,044 | 20,651,411 | 19,659,159 | -992,252 |
| INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC | 1,480,962,895 | 1,576,904,569 | 95,941,674 | 35,563,314 | 35,966,698 | 403,384 |
| KNIGHT CAPITAL AMERICAS LLC | 278,921,072 | 275,324,911 | -3,596,161 | 24,412,371 | 23,070,880 | -1,341,491 |
| MB TRADING FUTURES INC | 23,516,309 | 23,803,804 | 287,495 | 32,681,895 | 32,903,721 | 221,826 |
| OANDA CORPORATION | 149,719,746 | 145,769,574 | -3,950,172 | 162,159,602 | 162,423,138 | 263,536 |
| RJ OBRIEN ASSOCIATES LLC | 206,277,405 | 207,812,362 | 1,534,957 | 1,750,862 | 1,754,017 | 3,155 |
| XPRESSTRADE LLC | 22,853,078 | 22,876,129 | 23,051 | 972,798 | 821,332 | -151,466 |
| Totals | 2,790,377,272 | 2,868,212,676 | 77,835,404 | 859,657,569 | 982,254,494 | 122,596,925 |
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you numbers for August are incorrect – check the CFTC site – you have confused the adjusted net capital and capital requirement numbers
for OANDA anyways
thanks Sven, what do you think about FXCM’s progress?
This is still wrong. Under the net capital column, you are showing each firms’ net cap requirement, not their actual net cap.
+112 million? Is that genuine growth, or some kind of merger/accounting shizzle? Seems unlikely that they get so many new clients out of the blue..
yep fixed, thanks for noticing
No, it doesn’t look fixed. For example, you show net cap of $21.1 mil for FXDD. That is their net cap requirement. Their actual net cap is $24.4 mil. Same mistake for all of them. Oanda has $145 mil in net cap – you show $27.6 mil.
Cool. On FXCM – that really is a huge surge! Do you have any indication of how successful their partnership with etrade has been? I wonder if that has anything to do with it…
Apologies to all our readers, mistakes were at my end with collating data and uploading, thanks for all the feedback. Volumes have been the buzzword this summer and after taking a quick peek at the forthcoming Q3 quarterly report – be prepared for some interesting points… clearly institutional volumes are down… but what’s the scenario on the retail side…
Regulations have been dictating the industry since the global recession, and major hubs like Australia and Singapore are looking to tighten their rules for derivatives
@Chuck – re: Etrade, their customers tend to be more active traders. FXCMs volumes have been flat since the surge in Customer assets began, so doesn’t seem likely that that deal is the main driver here. Seems more likely that it has something to do with their institutional side and perhaps a hedge fund or asset managers coming on board. It also has occurred after they bought Lucid Markets, so the added experience of those guys may have something to do with new services they are able offer to large investors. Anyways, bodes well for them seeing a spike higher… Read more »
FYI – #s reported to the CFTC are not total deposits of client’s funds, these #s are what that firm has of their OWN money. and you still need to consider haircuts for open positions on the desk and the fact that an FCM only has to report they have an amount over the min required, they dont have to report their total funds on hand, these #s are NOT client deposits.
Most retail speculators do not have complete (mechanical) trading systems that account for entries and exits and contingencies. They do not know why they trade and what their relationship is to the market. Even in this article, there are no specifics to how the trades were placed so it is difficult for the reader to see a clear example of exactly how the losses were managed. I think we are getting too abstract in our discussion of trading as blog trading-as-religion.org has pointed out.