CFTC Updates Retail FX Deposits Data for October 2020

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has published its monthly report for October  2020, revealing a month-on-month rise of 0.15 percent in retail FX deposits compared with the $579 million reported in September 2020.

The report covers data for FCMs that are registered as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) and those included as broker-dealers that hold retail forex obligations in the United States, namely Gain Capital Group LLC, IG US LLC, Interactive Brokers LLC, Oanda Corporation and TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex LLC.

IG US Increase 9 Percent on Amount of Retail Forex Obligation

The chart listed below summarizes all the data published this year. For purposes of comparison, the month-on-month change of the recent months has been outlined to illustrate the disparities.

According to the agency, the FX funds held at registered brokerages operating in the United States hit over $580 million in October 2020.

Two of the five brokers listed notched a fall in Retail Forex Obligations: Gain Capital (-$612,429 or -0.27%) and Interactive Brokers (-$4,678,920 or -7.28%).

IG US has kept the best performer. The US arm of Europe's largest spread grew by nearly 9 percent from over $21 billion in September 2020.

Furthermore, Oanda's client funds showed a increase of $3 million or nearly 1.7 percent month-over-month while TD Ameritrade increased 0.85 percent to $69 million in October.

Gain Capital and Interactive Brokers Lose in Market Share

Looking at the market share of these five brokers, distribution changed slightly in October relative to the month prior.

For the fall in retail forex obligation, Gain Capital and Interactive Brokers both decreased in market share of 1 percent. However, Gain Capital is still the leading one of 38 percent market share.

The remaining three broker's market share kept unchanged. Oanda has the second largest market share of 35 percent while IG US and TD Ameritrade kept the same as in September, with 4% and 12% respectively.