gersegal's  Instablog

Retail volumes continue to fall, but institutional volumes strong

After a two-day delay due to Hurricane Sandy, Gain Capital (Forex.com) announced its Q3 results after markets closed yesterday, showing an overall profit (albeit a small one) of $3.6 million on revenues of $40 million for the quarter. Both numbers were well below Q3 figures last year, and slightly below Q2-2012, but not bad nonetheless given the overall industry-wide slowdown in volumes during Q3.

Continuing to be troubling at Gain, however, is the issue of trading volumes (see chart below). Retail volumes, where Gain earns most of its money, dipped below the $100 billion-per-month level for the first time since Gain went public in 2010. Institutional volumes at Gain GTX, however, strengthened to reach $168 billion per month, and this at a time when other institutional platforms have been showing steep declines.

The market was not impressed with Gain's results. Gain's share price dipped 1% during trading Thursday (before the results were announced), and fell a further 3% in after-hours trading (as reported by CNBC) to $4.41 per share - less than half of Gain's original IPO price of $9 per share, and nearing Gain's all-time-low share price of $4.25.

The company certainly is taking steps to try and promote growth -- acquiring futures broker Open E Cry from optionsExpress for $12 million, getting regulated and opening in Canada, hiring more institutional brokers -- but those efforts have not yet really born fruit, other than on the less-profitable institutional side of the business.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.

(click to enlarge)