After a relatively tumultuous year on the trading volumes front, GAIN Capital finished 2018 with an upbeat result. In the final month of last year, the retail brokerage posted a 17.7 percent increase when compared to December 2017.
The nominal figures totaled $192.6 billion, a figure which is lower by seven percent when compared to November. The year-on-year increase of almost 18 percent, however, is welcome news as Volatility across currency markets has kicked off with a bang on the first trading day of the new year.
The Average Daily Volumes (ADVs) metric increased by 2.1 percent when compared to November 2018 and by 17.1 percent when compared to the final month of 2017. The back-to-back increase in year-on-year volumes signals that the company is successfully adapting to the new regulatory environment.
Decline in Account Numbers
Despite the upbeat trading volumes, the number of active clients decreased during 2018. GAIN Capital posted a decline of almost seven percent on a yearly basis to 123,171 active traders. The numbers were based on a 12-month trailing average.
A figure more focused on the final months of the year, the three months trailing average declined just over 14 percent year-on-year to 68,696 accounts.
Futures trading was sharply higher when compared to a year ago. The segment contributed to an increase of 24 percent when compared to December 2017. The numbers must have been affected by the sharp increase in volatility across equity markets.
For the full month of December, clients of GAIN Capital traded 641,094 futures contracts. The month-on-month figures were lower by two percent. Looking at the ADV metric, the figures were higher when compared to November by 2.9 percent. The total of 32,055 contracts per day was also higher by 24.1 percent next to December 2017.
Active futures accounts remained more or less unchanged, registering a modest decline of 1.5 percent when compared to the final month of 2017. The increasing volatility across Equities markets towards the end of 2018 should keep the segment supported into the new year.
