After a surprising 7% (or $41 million) increase in July, client assets held by regulated US retail forex brokers continued their slow but steady decline in September, shedding 2%, or $12.6 million – the second consecutive month of 2% declines.
Total client assets held now sit at $607 million as at September 30, 2014, as per the CFTC’s monthly reports.
US industry concentrated increased even more, with the ‘big three’ – FXCM (NYSE:FXCM), OANDA, and Gain Capital’s Forex.com (NYSE:GCAP) holding more than 75% of all clients, up from 73% in August. Part if not most of that increase, of course, was due to FXCM’s acquisition of the US assets of IBFX, shifting about $16 million of client assets from IBFX to FXCM. Some ex-IBFX assets remain formally listed with IBFX at the end of the month, as per the table below, but those should also shift to FXCM come next month’s report.
It should be noted that this decrease occurred during a month which otherwise saw record forex trading volumes globally, with leading US-based brokers such as FXCM and Gain Capital reporting record retail trading volumes (records which, we should note, were beaten again in October).