The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday has published its much-awaited monthly report for January 2018, that includes data of Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) that are registered as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) in the country and broker-dealers that hold retail forex obligations in the United States. The January 2018, was marked by heightened volatility and record growth in forex trading volumes across the industry, however, deposits of retail forex clients witnessed a drop of 4 percent during the month, after being on upswing movement over the past few months.
During the month, the total amount of retail forex obligation reached $510.6 million for the four licensed FCMs, a decline of 4 percent month-over-month from December 2017. With record growth in trading volumes and favourable industry dynamics, brokerages failed to reap benefits and adding deposits during the month.
Further looking at the CFTC report, the FCM funds were negative at all the reporting brokerages in the industry with Interactive Brokers leading chart of worst performers for the month which recorded an overall drop of 9 percent or $4.4 million to $42.3 million at the end of January 2018, compared to $46.7 in December 2017.
Gain Capital recorded an overall loss of 4 percent or $9.8 million to $239.4 million at the end of January 2018, compared to $249.2 million in the previous month. Next in line were, OANDA Corporation and TD Ameritrade which reported a drop of 2 percent and 4 percent respectively in retail Fx funds
In terms of market share, the distribution is broadly unchanged in January compared to December. Gain Capital is the uncontested leader and established itself as a firm leader in the space with a market share of 47 percent, OANDA Corporation strengthened to become second largest in the US with a market share of 33 percent. TD AMERITRADE and Interactive Brokers following the suit with 12 and 8 percent respectively.
