US forex broker FXCM saw a rise in retail trading volume and tradeable accounts in January 2012, in comparison to both December 2011 and January 201.
Also institutional trading at FXCM was on the rise during this month, with an especially strong growth in the number of institutional trades per day.
The only metric that saw a dip was the average of retail client trades per day, inc omparison with December 2011 (not in comparison with January 2011). January saw a return of people from vacations. FXCM recently announced a faster MT4 offering.
FXCM is not the largest retail broker in the US, but has strong presence all over the world, especially in Asia.
All the numbers are available here, in the official press release:
NEW YORK, NY, February 14, 2012 – FXCM Inc. (NYSE: FXCM) today announced certain key operating metrics for January 2012 for its retail and institutional foreign exchange business. Monthly activities included:
January 2012
Retail Trading Metrics
- Retail customer trading volume(1) of $298 billion in January 2012, 3% higher than December 2011 and 15% higher than January 2011.
- Average retail customer trading volume(1) per day of $13.5 billion in January 2012, 3% higher than December 2011 and 10% higher than January 2011.
- An average of 345,677 retail client trades per day in January 2012, 3% lower than December 2011 and 12% higher than January 2011.
- · Tradeable accounts(2) of 167,710 as of January 31, 2012, an increase 2,104, or 1% from December 2011, and an increase of 22,720,or 13%, from January 2011.
Institutional Trading Metrics
- Institutional customer trading volume(1) of $109 billion in January 2012, 5% higher than December 2011 and 39% higher than January 2011.
- Average institutional trading volume(1) per day of $5.0 billion in January 2012, 5% higher than December 2011 and 33% higher than January 2011.
· An average of 21,459 institutional client trades per day in January 2012, 23% higher than December 2011 and 281% higher than January 2011.
(1) Volume that FXCM customers traded in period translated into US dollars.
(2) An account that has sufficient funds to place a trade in accordance with FXCM trading policies.