Update: I've just confirmed it with IB, their numbers include all clients who've traded Forex in a given quarter. Since IB has a massive clients base it means that if someone trades equities for a living and made an fx trade just once in a quarter - they would be included in this list. It explains how come IB has so many clients - most of them are not active forex traders but just traders who've traded forex at least once.
Interactive Brokers (IB) is a large broker providing trading services to retail and institutional traders in the stock, options, futures, bonds and the forex markets.
IB until now, although it was always known that it has a large forex traders base, didn't release forex profitability statistics just like all other forex brokers do every quarter. This may be because IB is registered as an FCM with the CFTC and not as an RFED. However something prompted IB lately and it now released its profitability figures for the first time. And the result is that IB is apparently the largest forex broker in the US and its clients are the most profitable ones. The question is why? Leverage is pretty much the same as with other US retail forex brokers so perhaps the difference is the average account size.
PERFORMANCE OF INTERACTIVE BROKERS RETAIL CUSTOMER FOREX ACCOUNTS FOR PAST FOUR CALENDAR QUARTERS:
| Quarter | Forex Accounts | Profitable | Non profitable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2011 | 45,053 | 51.00% | 49.00% |
| Q3 2011 | 45,058 | 51.20% | 48.80% |
| Q2 2011 | 41,651 | 38.80% | 61.20% |
| Q1 2011 | 40,370 | 40.40% | 59.60% |
The table below sets forth the percentage of non-discretionary retail forex customer accounts maintained by Interactive Brokers LLC that were profitable and unprofitable for the past four calendar quarters. The accounts were identified and these statistics were calculated according to the definitions and interpretations set forth by the CFTC and NFA.
TIME PERIOD NUMBER OF ACCOUNTS PERCENTAGE OF PROFITABLE ACCOUNTS PERCENTAGE OF UNPROFITABLE ACCOUNTS
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.
