FXCM Inc. (NYSE: FXCM) today announced certain key operating metrics for March 2013 for its retail and institutional foreign Exchange business.
Volume was lower both on Retail and Institutional desks in March when comparing to February and previous comparable period. This is inline with the general slowdown in the industry as peak volumes of January and February cooled off a bit in March. Interesting to note that number of FXCM's retail tradable accounts grew by almost 5,000 (biggest increase in past 2 years or so, no known acquisition took place) however number of active accounts fell by 1,000 indicating that less clients traded in March as lower Volatility presented less opportunities.
FXCM also announced that it is going forward with the second tranche of shares allocation as part of the Lucid deal.
Monthly activities included:
March 2013 Retail Trading Metrics
- Retail customer trading volume (1) of $319 billion in March 2013, 11% lower than February 2013 and 6% lower than March 2012. Volume from indirect sources was 47% of total retail volume (1) in the first quarter 2013. Retail customer trading volume (1) for the first quarter 2013 was $1.04 trillion, 17% higher than the fourth quarter 2012, and 5% higher than the first quarter 2012.
- Average retail customer trading volume(1) per day of $15.2 billion in March 2013, 15% lower than February 2013 and 2% lower than March 2012.
- An average of 422,126 retail client trades per day in March 2013, 8% lower than February 2013 and 7% higher than March 2012.
- Tradable accounts(2) of 195,629 as of March 31, 2013, an increase of 4,738 accounts, or 2% from February 2013, and a decrease of 4,503 accounts, or 2%, from March 2012.
March 2013 Institutional Trading Metrics
- Institutional customer trading volume (1) of $125 billion in March 2013, 5% lower than February 2013 and 22% lower than March 2012.
- Average institutional trading volume (1) per day of $6.0 billion in March 2013, 10% lower than February 2013 and 19% lower than March 2012.
- An average of 18,054 institutional client trades per day in March 2013, 1% higher than February 2013 and 31% lower than March 2012.
In the quarter ended March 31, 2013, Lucid met certain performance requirements enabling them to receive the second tranche of 1.2 million FXCM class A common shares pursuant to the purchase agreement related to FXCM's acquisition of a 50.1% interest of Lucid in June 2012. While the purchase agreement does not require these shares to be issued to the Lucid sellers until June 18th, 2013, the 1.2 million shares will be included in the determination of FXCM's fully diluted and proforma EPS for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 since the performance requirements were met during this period.
