The last quarter of 2011 saw improved profitability for forex traders in the United States.
On the other hand, the number of active traders dropped by 10% during the quarter. Did the losers give up on forex trading?
Since October 2010, US forex brokers are obliged publish the profitability percentage among active traders, and the number of active traders.
The brokers that enjoy the most profitable traders are Oanda and GFT. Both have a 39% score. It’s important to note that these two brokers have led this field in the past, so this isn’t a coincidence.
In his excellent report, Michael Greenberg shows that Oanda has the biggest number of traders in the US, 24,608 out of 97,206 active traders. This comes despite a significant drop in the number of active accounts during Q4: 5,676.
FXCM is second, and Gain Capital (forex.com) is third and Interbank FX closely follows in the fourth place. Note that these figures are only for US traders.
One explanation for the drop in clients could be that losing clients just stopped trading. Another could point to the fact that the regulatory limits are hurting forex trading in the US.
Apart from this blessed transparency, US forex brokers also limit the leverage to 50:1 in major pairs. This is a requirement from the CFTC/
Are you trading with a US broker? Do you feel that is a more serious business, for serious people that can make more profits?