US Forex brokers profitability report for Q3 2011 – OANDA back on top, profitability up

20 Comments on this post

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1. A. said:
   Do these stats also take into account the brokers’ non-US branches? Are all the accounts counted, or just the ones opened at the US branches?

   October 17th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
2. Michael Greenberg said:
   Just accounts at US based subsidiaries

   October 17th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
3. Chris said:
   I am I reading this right when it says that there are 108,490 active accounts in the US. This number seems very small when considering the number of brokers and the ever increasing world wide popularity of trading forex.

   October 17th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
4. Michael Greenberg said:
   unfortunately that is the case, official numbers. but it’s 108k ACTIVE non-discretionary accounts held just with US based subsidiaries.

   October 17th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
5. Mac said:
   MG, Just curious…do you have any stats on CitiFXPro? and thank you for compiling this information!

   October 17th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
6. rasosa said:
   Please, somebody can explain me with an example, what does mean 35.5% profi and 64.5% loss?

   I think, that of 100 trades made in this broker 35.5 are winning and 64.5 are loser. if that is so, i believe that stats don´t are a good signal for a new trader.

   October 17th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
7. Michael Greenberg said:
   hi Mac, unfortunately for us (and fortunately for Citi) they are bound only to the SEC requirements as a bank, therefore they don’t publish these stats

   October 18th, 2011 at 3:25 am
8. Michael Greenberg said:
   no, this means that within last quarter, non-discretionary accounts that traded at least ones, 35.5% of them were profitable (had their current balance at above the starting balance)

   October 18th, 2011 at 3:27 am
9. Andy said:
   It would be interesting to compare these stats with futures trading accounts, just to see how big fx is compared to that. But its probably not easily comparable.

   October 18th, 2011 at 5:42 am
10. Michael Greenberg said:
    you know where i can get access to the futures stats?

    October 18th, 2011 at 5:59 am
11. Andy said:
    Michael: only the FCM data from the CFTC, but you probably already know that.

    http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/FinancialDataforFCMs/index.htm

    October 18th, 2011 at 7:09 am
12. Michael Greenberg said:
    yep, this just helps calculate average account size for all the brokers

    October 18th, 2011 at 7:16 am
13. stickman said:
    although i am sure the account numbers will grow by alot over time(unfortunately)..the more forex becomes popular in the USA, the more crap and regulation will come along with it.we have seen this happen over the years

    unless you are employed/invested in one of these brokers, i see this as a good thing

    October 18th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
14. Thomas said:
    The reason for the slight decline of Oanda accounts is the transfer of many European accounts to their new London entity.

    October 18th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
15. Michael Greenberg said:
    and some went to the Canadian one too

    October 18th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
16. Robert said:
    another reason Oanda accounts number are so high compare to others …. simply because they let you open an account as little as $1.
    Spot forex is still a baby compare to other market…got long way to go.

    October 20th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
17. Michael Greenberg said:
    Robert, that’s not the reason. ibfx for instance too allows accounts from $1 and so are many other brokers – smaller the balance faster the trader is wiped out.

    October 20th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
18. jon said:
    spot forex may be a baby, but a different animal with a much different growth rate. The flexibility in leverage and lot sizes are unmatched of any other financial instrument….and will make it easier for anyone to trade, especially using a cost averaging strategy.

    October 23rd, 2011 at 10:34 pm
19. Michael Greenberg said:
    easier to trade and easier to lose

    October 24th, 2011 at 4:59 am
20. pipmaestro said:
    in reply to jon. contracts for difference also allow flexible leverage and lot sizes as well. In addition to forex you can trade indexes,stocks,commodities,energies,metals and some other good stuff depending on your broker. although its not avaliable in the us so i take it you havent heard of it

    October 24th, 2011 at 5:45 am