After years of consolidation of the foreign Exchange market sector of the U.S. retail brokerage industry, the tough regulatory stance adopted by national regulators has yielded the result we all expected.
This month’s CFTC data for client assets held at U.S. Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) shows that client assets have hit a new low. The final month of 2015 shows a broad industry decline amid tough choices that traders have to make when choosing an FX broker in the U.S.
The total amount of retail Forex obligations of the industry decreased by almost 5 per cent, declining to $544 million from $570 in the month of November. The figure is one of the sharpest drops ever, attesting to the declining amount of traders and volumes on the U.S. market.
Data for all major U.S. brokerages for December 2015, Source: CFTC
Looking at the market share of the companies, we are seeing a relatively stable picture with no notable standouts when compared to last month. FXCM and IBFX, which is the company behind TradeStation, have experienced client asset declines totaling 6.7 and 5.5 per cent.
The decline in the market is broad, with not a single company remaining unaffected. FXCM and GAIN Capital have maintained their top spots with 32 and 24 per cent respectively. OANDA remained in third place with 18 per cent of the market, while Interactive Brokers and IBFX remained at the bottom of the pack with 8 and 9 per cent respectively.
US Market Share for Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers, Source: CFTC
