FCM December Metrics, Forex Dealers' Funds Dip Except for Interactive Brokers and FXDD

As the trading week came to a close on Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released selected data for Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) for the month of December, including data for FCMs registered as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) and those registered as broker dealers, holding Retail Forex Obligations in the U.S.

The combined data across the ten firms that hold such funds showed a combined drop of 1.28%, from $608,598,353 in November to $600,781,807 at the end of December, a decrease of $7,816,546 over the prior month as 2013 concluded.

Forex Magnates had just reported at the end of January, the profitability for nine US retail FX firms including the number of accounts certain brokers had added, highlighting some of the parallel trends that took place, including in December. Below we compare December's changes, for the ten firms, as described.

Eight out of Ten FCMs Holding Retail Forex Obligation Saw December Taper

From the ten reporting FCMs holding Retail Forex Obligations, two had reported higher figures in December over November, including Interactive Brokers LLC with the largest gain at 7.93% or a $2,994,367 increase from $37,779,027 in November to $40,773,394 in December, and FXDirectDealer LLC (FXDD) with a less moderate increase of nearly 1 percent or 0.94% with its Retail Forex Obligations increasing from $27,508,312 in November to $27,776,386 in December, a change of $258,074 higher month-over-month (MoM).

For December, the remaining eight dealers had their share of Retail Forex Obligations decrease over the prior month, with the biggest $ drop from these eight seen at IBFX Inc, which had its retail funds decrease $3,148,174 or 4.42% to $67,997,066 MoM.

This was followed closely by OANDA Corporation with a $3,052,009 decrease to $126,448,623 a 2.36% decrease MoM, and with Institutional Liquidity LLC having a more significant percentage decrease with its December figures down 10.74% to $11,505,473, decreasing $1,385,071 over November.

Gain Capital also reported December's figures lower by the tune of $1,020,217, but this was barely even a percent or 0.99% lower than the $103,223,805 it reported in November to $102,203,588 in December 2013.

The largest percentage decrease from the eight dealers that reported lower figures in December when compared to November, was RJ OBRIEN Associates LLC, with a 29.41% drop from $565,689 down to $235,721, which indicates that it barely has much Retail Forex commitments remaining (comparatively speaking in the context of the ten dealers).

An excerpt from the full list of FCMs shows the ten that hold Retail Forex Obligations, with comparisons from November to December including MoM change in dollar terms and percentages, as well as the net total across all ten reporting FCMs:

For a full list of all FCMs on the CFTC reported list for December, including firms that do not hold Retail Forex Obligations, data can be found in PDF and XLS format on the CFTC's website.

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