Despite the less than volatile Q3 2012 the number of accounts didn’t grow as expected and neither did the traders’ profitability. Apparently low volatility doesn’t necessarily mean improved traders survival.
Not only did one more US broker depart the market today but the total number of US forex traders dropped by over 2,500 while profitability almost didn’t change (+0.3% on average and -0.6% when calculating weighted average). There are still over 100,000 active US forex traders left however this number may go below the 100k mark if the trend continues into the next quarter.
CitiFX Pro is now the number one US forex brokers in terms of clients’ profitability with Interactive Brokers only slightly behind it. ILQ showed the biggest increase of the quarter when its clients’ profitability jumped by almost 10% placing it third.
Interesting to note is that with the exception of FXCM the brokers with most profitable clients were the only ones able to grow in terms of accounts. FXCM posted the biggest growth in accounts while growing over $200 million in customer deposits in May-June 2012.
Q2 2012 profitability report can be found here. Q1 2012 and the rest here.
Well, I guess this removes the theory that FXCM’s net customer capital growth has been driven by clients being more profitable.