January was a month in which market volatility accelerated dramatically in the final two weeks, and today’s publication of financial data for FCMs for the month of February 2015 by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clearly demonstrates an upturn in client assets from December’s multi-year low of $550.6 billion to $568 billion in January.
This 3.09% gain in client assets still indicates that the road to recovery is perhaps a steady and slow one, especially bearing in mind that US retail forex client assets fell 13% in December to $550.6 million from November’s $630.5 million. Part of the decline was the removal of KCG from the list, with its client assets now redefined as institutional. However December still saw a marked natural decline, primarily at FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM), which reported a 12% drop in US client assets.
It is apparent that whilst market volatility increased dramatically on January 15 as a result of the Swiss National Bank’s decision to remove the 1.20 peg on EUR/CHF, the US remained relatively conservative in its approach.
Following the report by LeapRate regarding December’s FCM financial details in which FXCM, OANDA and Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP) moved even further to an all-time high of 80.1%, up from about 75% over most of the previous year, FXCM has experienced a decline in client assets to $178 million in January, which represents a dip below the $200 million mark, a milestone that the firm remained above in December despite the overall lows across the industry.
For the official announcement from the CFTC, click here.