GAIN Capital (NYSE: GCAP) released volume metrics for the month of December 2014 before the bell today. After some bullish calls from analysts recently regarding the shares, it looks like those calls have some merit. Retail volumes were almost 7% higher than November at $236.1 billion and the institutional mark came in almost 4% higher at $405.9 billion. As January has just got under way in the new year, it will be very interesting to see what 2015 has in store for FX brokerages… if Q4 of 2014 carries its momentum into Q1 2015 and the rest of fiscal year 2015, then we could be seeing some more record breaking volume numbers. We would not be surprised however, if things did revert back a bit. Monitoring market volatility closely over the next couple of weeks to provide any forecasts for next month will be key.
To see Gain’s volume chart accompanied by full metrics please see below:
Retail metrics
Retail OTC trading volume came to $236.1 billion, an increase of 6.8% from November 2014, which was a month in which GAIN Capital’s retail FX volume dipped by 19% to $221 billion compared with October’s $273.4 billion in retail OTC volumes and still short of September this year’s record $238.9 billion.
On an annual basis, December stands out as a month with an increase in retail OTC FX volume of 52.3% from December 2013.
Average daily retail OTC trading volume during December 2014 was $10.7 billion, a decrease of 2.9% from November 2014 and an increase of 44.4% from December 2013.
GAIN Capital held active retail OTC accounts of 94,895, an increase of 0.4% from November 2014 and a decrease of 2.4% from December 2013, and the volume of futures contracts traded came to 651,083, an increase of 27.3% from November 2014 and an increase of 52.7% from December 2013.
Average daily futures contracts volumes were 29,595 in December, an increase of 15.7% from November 2014 and an increase of 45.8% from December 2013.
The total number of funded accounts in December was 133,771, an increase of 0.5% from November 2014 and an increase of 3.6% from December 2013.
Institutional metrics
Whilst December’s headway has made some steps toward rectifying November’s tailing off of retail volumes but is still short of the boom months of September and October, the firm’s institutional division experienced a 6% contraction in December with an average daily GTX volume of $17.2 billion, a decrease of 6.0%, whereas November came in at $19.6 billion, an increase of 2.8% from October 2014. When viewed annually, December 2014’s figure represents an increase of 3.9% from December 2013
GAIN Capital’s GTX division reported a trading volume of $379.4 billion, an increase of 3.4% over November’s $366.7 billion. Average daily institutional volume amounted to $18.4 billion, a decrease of 5.7% from November 2014 and no change from December 2013. GTX trading volume of $379.4 billion, an increase of 3.4% from November 2014 and an increase of 8.8% from December 2013.
For the official announcement from GAIN Capital, click here.