News · Analysis
CFD Broker Volumes Cool in Q2 2026 as Accounts Hold Steady
Trading activity per account fell at 45 of 51 retail CFD brokers tracked in both the first and second quarters of 2026, according to calculations published by FM Intelligence on 10 August 2026. The median broker handled $3.06 million in monthly volume per active account in Q2, down 9.7% quarter on quarter, even though the industry's active account count held broadly steady. The data indicate that headline account growth is an unreliable proxy for actual client trading activity, since the two metrics moved in opposite directions at most firms during the quarter.
Retail CFD brokers reported broadly stable account numbers through the second quarter of 2026, but the volume those accounts generated told a different story, according to calculations from FM Intelligence published on 10 August 2026.
What happened
FM Intelligence found that trading activity fell at 45 of the 51 retail brokers it tracked across both the first and second quarters of 2026. The median broker handled $3.06 million in monthly trading volume per active account in Q2, a decline of 9.7% from the first quarter, per the same source. Active accounts across the tracked group held near 7.39 million, down just 0.4% on an excluding-Japan basis, according to FM Intelligence. The firm's analysis states that the fall in the ratio came almost entirely from volume rather than from account numbers, since the denominator barely moved.
Axi recorded the highest per-account figure in the group at $10.70 million a month, up 13.5% quarter on quarter, according to FM Intelligence. However, the same data show Axi's monthly volume fell 12.4% over the period, with its estimated account base falling faster still, by 22.8%. FM Intelligence notes that a rising ratio can therefore reflect a shrinking account base rather than stronger trading, and that the direction of the ratio alone does not indicate whether trading economics improved.
Why it matters
Aggregate monthly volume across the matched account series fell 7.3% to $30.5 trillion, according to FM Intelligence's calculations, while a separate volume ranking from the same source put the quarterly decline at 9.3%, based on a different set of first-quarter totals. The weighted industry ratio — total volume divided by total active accounts — fell 7.0% to $4.12 million, a shallower drop than the median because the weighted figure gives larger brokers more influence, FM Intelligence said. Only six of the 51 brokers increased monthly volume per active account between the two quarters, and in four of those cases the ratio rose while the estimated account count was falling. Just two brokers grew both active accounts and monthly volume simultaneously, according to the data.
What it means for traders
For traders assessing a broker's health, the FM Intelligence figures suggest that account growth headlines should be treated with caution. A broker adding clients while volume per account declines may be experiencing weaker overall client engagement, not stronger business momentum. FM Intelligence's first-quarter study, by comparison, put the median at $3.40 million across 52 brokers, with a 17-fold spread between the highest and lowest observations; the range in the latest quarter runs to roughly 21 times between top and bottom, per the same source. XTB sits at the low end of the range, though FM Intelligence cautions that its estimated 851,000 accounts are not directly comparable with the rest of the sample, without specifying the reason in the extract reviewed.
What to watch
The broker-by-broker breakdown behind these figures is proprietary to the FM Intelligence DataLab portal, and the source material reviewed here does not disclose every underlying number. Traders and analysts monitoring individual brokers' quarterly disclosures should watch whether declining volume-per-account ratios persist into the third quarter, and whether firms with shrinking account bases can stabilise trading activity. Readers comparing broker rankings more broadly may find it useful to see our World FX Awards coverage for related context, and our methodology page sets out how we approach broker evaluation generally; none of the brokers named in this report are described by FM Intelligence as award winners or as endorsed by any awards body.
FAQ
What does “volume per active account” measure? According to FM Intelligence, it is monthly trading volume divided by the number of active client accounts at a broker, used as a proxy for how much each client is trading rather than how many clients a broker has.
Did account numbers fall in Q2 2026? No. FM Intelligence's data show active accounts across the tracked brokers held near 7.39 million, down only 0.4% on an excluding-Japan basis, while volume per account fell more sharply.
Why did Axi's ratio rise despite falling volume? FM Intelligence attributes this to Axi's estimated account base shrinking faster (22.8%) than its monthly volume declined (12.4%), which pushed the per-account ratio higher even as underlying activity fell.