The CFTC’s monthly report titled Selected FCM Financial Data has been released, showing customer funds on deposit at the five US retail brokers. These figures can be used to compare each broker’s funds on deposit month-to-month, and to compare brokers to each other.
Here is an overview of the 5 brokers, listed in alphabetical order –
• Gain Capital (aka forex .com) remains the largest US forex broker in terms of forex customer funds on deposit. For the month ending January 31, 2021, customer funds at Gain Capital increased 4.53%. Gain now has a 38.4% share of the US market, slightly increasing its lead over Oanda, the second-largest US broker.
• IG Markets US, the newest and smallest of the 5 US brokers, showed the largest increase, percentage-wise, in customer funds during January, adding 7.93% to its holdings. IG’s market share has increased to 4.7% of the US market, up from 4.4% as of the end of December.
• Interactive Brokers (aka IBKR) continues to shed retail forex funds on deposit, down 16.63% in the month of January. IBKR now has a 10.3% share of the US market, falling slightly behind TD Ameritrade. IBKR is now in 4th place (out of 5 brokers) in terms of market share.
• Oanda has recouped some of its December loss of customer funds, gaining 2.80% in January. Oanda’s market share has increased slightly month-over-month to 34.6% as of January 31, up from 34.1% at the end of December. Oanda remains the number-two US broker in terms of customer funds on deposit.
• TD Ameritrade is close in size to IBKR, in terms of customer funds on deposit. At the end of December, IBKR (12.5% share) was ahead of TDA (11.9% share). But, in January, IBKR lost share, falling (to 10.3% share) behind TDA – while TDA maintained its 11.9% share.
The US retail forex market is a 3-tier market, in which Gain and Oanda make up the top tier, TDA and IBKR comprise the second tier, and IG Markets (far behind, but fast-growing) is alone in the third tier.
Here are the data, as of January 31, in table format –
Here is the CFTC report from which these data were derived –