US Forex Brokers' Retail Deposits Drop in November, Gain Capital Still Dominates

Retail FX deposits at brokerages in the US, one of the most developed investment markets worldwide, dropped in November 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) date showed.

The CFTC has published its monthly report, which 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, CHARLES SCHWAB Futures & Forex LLC and the newest comer Trading.com Markets.

According to the CFTC dataset, the FX funds held at the six registered brokerages hit over $486.1 million in November 2022. Excluding Trading.com Markets, the retail FX deposits of the five established brokers reached $485.5 million, a month-on-month increase of 3.6 percent compared with the $503.6 million reported in October 2022.

The chart listed below summarizes all the data published in 2022. For purposes of comparison, the month-on-month change of the recent months has been outlined to illustrate the disparities.

Only Gain Capital and Trading.com Markets Saw Increase on Amount of Retail Forex Obligation

Four of the six FX firms listed notched decreases in Retail Forex Obligations, this time was IG US, Interactive Brokers, OANDA and CHARLES SCHWAB.

IG US' retail FX deposits experienced a 18.3 percent decline to $44.5 million while Interactive Brokers experienced a 2.4 percent decline to $25.8 million. CHARLES SCHWAB also saw a decrease of 1 percent to $67.2 million, compared to $67.9 million in the month prior. In addition, OANDA saw its clients' assets decreased by 4.7 percent month-over-month to $164.2 million.

In November, Gain Capital saw an increase of $1.3 million to $183.8 million, compared to 182.4 million at the end of October, or 0.74 percent higher month-over-month. Trading.com Markets also reported a rise of $28,556 to 590,991, which is 5 percent higher over a monthly basis. 

Gain Capital Gained in Market Share, Still Dominates

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

For the rise in retail forex obligation, Gain Capital increased in market share of 2 percent with a current share of 38 percent, remaining the leader in terms of market share. CHARLES SCHWAB increased in market share of 1 percent with a current share of 14 percent.

IG US acquired 9 percent share in this month, 2 percent lower that the prior month.

The remaining brokers' market share both kept unchanged. OANDA and Interactive Brokers acquired 34 percent share and 5 percent share respectively in this month, Trading.com Markets retained the last one of less than 1 percent.