The Latest Forex Broker Financial Situation

February 12, 2008

The December 31st, 2007 FCM report was released from the CFTC and processed on http://www.brokerontop.com today. Some notable mid-cap Forex brokers who remain in financial shape based on Excess Net Capital are:

Oanda’s excess net capital decreased 1.85% from the previous month to 149 million dollars.
FXCM’s excess net capital decreased marginally from the previous month to 61 million dollars.
Gain Capital (Forex.com) excess net capital decreased almost 2% from the previous month to just over 44 million dollars.

Two notable mid-cap Forex brokers had excess net capital decrease by over 40%:

Interbank FX excess net capital decreased by over 40% from the previous month to 15.7 million dollars.
FX Solutions excess net capital decreased by 49% from the previous month to 13 million dollars.

Some notable small-cap Forex brokers include:

GFS Forex and Futures increased excess net capital by 248% to just over 9 million dollars.
CMS Forex increased excess net capital by over 22% to just under 9 million dollars.
Alpari (US) had excess net capital decrease by over 44% to just over 3 million dollars.
Easy Forex had excess net capital decrease by over 48% to 2.6 million dollars.

These numbers don’t tell the full story of any FCM’s financial health. Perform your own due diligence to try to determine if a forex firm is financially stable. I prefer the mid-cap brokers but we all know what happened to Refco a couple of years ago so you never know. Even though Refco seemed like they were financially stable, if the company is hiding bad debt and performing creative accounting, your money could be gone forever.

Alpari and Other Forex Brokers Increase Capital

January 11, 2008

The November 2007 Futures Commission Merchant report was released today and has been processed on http://www.brokerontop.com. Here's an updated status of the broker's I mentioned may be in trouble earlier in the week:

CMS Forex (needed 10 million, barely compliant in October) increased excess net capital by 4%
Hotspot FX (need 5 million, barely compliant in October) increased excess net capital by 1%
Forex Club (need 10 million, seriously undercapitalized in October) increased excess net capital by 65%
MB Trading (need 10 million, seriously undercapitalized based on October report) increased excess net capital by 168%
Easy Forex (don't know their leverage but still seriously undercapitalized based on October report) increased excess net capital by 184%
Alpari (need 10 million, seriously undercapitalized based on October report) increased excess net capital by 271%