After a very turbulent January, the US retail forex sector had a much more sedate February.
Just-released CFTC data shows that the US retail forex industry continued its long decline during February but ever so slightly, with US retail forex assets down 0.3% to end the month at $566.8 million.
The two largest US forex brokers, FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM) and OANDA, both saw a 3% decline, while #3 player Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP) saw assets rise 5% – not surprising, since Gain and its Forex.com subsidiary seem to have come out the events of January 15 a lot stronger that its larger rivals.
We also exclusively reported last month that losses incurred by some of the large US brokers in the January 15 Swiss Franc spike took their toll on capital levels. OANDA, in particular, saw its capital levels drop in January by more than 50% – or $45 million.
Well February gave brokers time to fix things somewhat. OANDA replenished most of that US capital base during the month, with it shifting capital from subsidiaries abroad to the tune of a $40.4 million increase.
