GAIN Capital says it is pleased with trading activity of FXCM accounts
“Following the first week of trading post-transaction, we are very pleased with the response to our FOREX.com offering and the trading activity of the transferred accounts,” says Glenn Stevens, GAIN’s CEO.
Online trading services provider Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP) has earlier today reported its results for the final quarter and full year 2016, with the attention of a large part of the FX industry focused on what the broker has to say regarding the acquisition of US retail FX accounts of Forex Capital Markets LLC, or FXCM.
GAIN entered into a definitive agreement to acquire these on February 7, 2017, shortly after findings by US regulators showed that FXCM had traded against its customers for several years and had provided misleading information regarding its dealing desk model. Whereas FXCM is on its way out of the US, as it is barred from membership in the US National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the team of Gain Capital worked hard on the transfer of former FXCM US clients to Forex.com, GAIN’s retail FX subsidiary.
The transfer of the accounts was completed last weekend, with 47,000 accounts shifted from FXCM to Forex.com. GAIN confirmed today that the transfer took Forex.com customer accounts count to more than 70,000.
Today’s press release did not say much on the post-transfer situation. GAIN’s CEO Glenn Stevens provided a brief comment though saying that:
“Following the first week of trading post-transaction, we are very pleased with the response to our FOREX.com offering and the trading activity of the transferred accounts.”
This hints that a certain proportion of ex-FXCM US clients are trading through their new accounts – and this determines the price GAIN will pay for the accounts’ acquisition. GAIN will pay $500 for each transferred account that executes a trade during the first 76 calendar days after the closing day of the deal.
It should also be noted that Forex.com enhanced its offering to suit the needs of its newly acquired clientele. The broker now offers access to TradingView charts, NinjaTrader, and has expanded its Active Trader program. The new clients of Forex.com are also invited to attend introductory webinars to get acquainted with the services available.
Meanwhile, Forex Capital Markets LLC has several days left before it has to officially abandon its NFA and CFTC registrations, that is, to exit the US market. FXCM has redesigned its website to reflect the changes, with the redesigned webpage featuring no mention of Forex Capital Markets LLC nor of the once hailed No dealing desk.
We expect to have more information on the GAIN-FXCM deal from SEC filings.
