FXCM, the world’s largest retail FX firm (and a member of LeapRate’s Approved List of Forex brokerages), reported today its results for the fourth quarter of 2011. Although FXCM had already pre-announced its revenues last week to reassure markets after a disastrous Q4 reported by rival Gain Capital (Forex.com), and had given us Q4 volumes in January, the market was pleasantly surprised by FXCM’s full results, sending FXCM stock up about 15% in morning NYSE trading.
Nothing spectacular in FXCM’s financial results (see charts below), but after being spooked by Gain Capital’s Q4 results last week, it seems as though the market was pleasantly surprised by FXCM’s solid quarter, and the lack of negative surprises.
Some of the most pleasing news from FXCM was its February volume numbers, up nicely from a slower December and January, as we have seen across the global FX industry including Feb numbers put out by ICAP and Hotspot FX. Mainly, FXCM’s retail volumes (where FXCM makes most of its money) were up to $347 billion, its third-best month ever (see chart below). Some of the increase in volumes can be attributed to acquisitions FXCM has made in the past year, particularly in Japan.