CMC Markets Brent crude trades by Australian clients jumped 1,193% in March 2026 compared with February, according to a behavioural report the broker published this week, titled Inside the Mind of the Trader. The figure captures just how sharply retail traders pivoted when US and Israeli strikes on Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
CMC Markets Brent Crude Trades and the Hormuz Shock
Brent opened on 2 March at $82, a 14-month high and a 13% jump, and later topped $115. CMC presents the 1,193% rise in trade counts as evidence of how quickly clients redirect attention when a geopolitical shock rewrites the supply picture overnight.
Two caveats matter here. The figures cover trade counts rather than traded volume, meaning a surge in small individual orders counts the same as fewer large ones. They also cover the Australian operation only, so they say nothing about how UK or European clients behaved during the same period.
Bitcoin Out, Gold In, Then Commonwealth Bank Fades
The report carries two other rotations. Bitcoin trade counts fell 27% between December 2025 and January 2026, while gold trade counts rose 44% over the same period. CMC frames this as a retreat from risk-on positioning after Bitcoin peaked at $126,080 in October 2025 and then fell below $90,000 in November.
A third data point covers Commonwealth Bank of Australia shares. Average monthly trades in the stock fell 53% between January and April 2026 against the 2025 average, after the shares closed at A$158 in January 2025 against a Morningstar fair value estimate of A$95. CMC interprets the drop in activity as clients eventually stepping back from an overvalued name.
None of the three percentage changes comes with base numbers attached, so the absolute scale of each swing remains unknown.
‘The challenge for traders isn’t a lack of information, it’s how they process it,’ said Sakis Paratsoukidis, head of quantitative trading for CMC in Australia and New Zealand.
A Report That Cautions Against Behaviour CMC Has Been Making Easier
The two instruments at the centre of the report’s rotation story are also the two the Australian unit has recently extended access to. CMC launched 24/7 crypto CFD trading covering Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP without weekend restrictions, then followed with weekend gold CFDs giving clients access while the underlying spot and futures markets are shut. The report does not acknowledge that connection.
CMC Markets Brent crude trades during March illustrate reactive behaviour the report warns against, yet the broker’s own product roadmap has systematically removed the friction that might slow a reactive decision down.
What ASIC’s Data Adds to the Picture
CMC builds its behavioural case partly on DALBAR investor-gap research, citing a shortfall of 8.48% against the S&P 500 in 2024. In the same passage it notes the most recent DALBAR reading is 0.72%, the lowest since 2012, without addressing what a narrowing gap does to the underlying argument.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has published harder numbers on this market that do not appear in CMC’s report. ASIC found that 68% of retail CFD investors lost money in the 2024 financial year, losing more than A$458 million including A$73 million in fees.
In Report 828, formally titled Risky Business: Driving Change in CFD Issuers’ Distribution Practices, released on 20 January 2026, ASIC set out the results of a review of 52 licensed CFD issuers conducted between October 2024 and December 2025. The regulator secured close to A$40 million in refunds for more than 38,000 investors and found that more than half the sector had breached its product intervention order.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant put it plainly: ‘Each year, thousands of Australians lose money trading CFDs and through our review we have helped put $40 million back in the pockets of more than 38,000 investors.’
The review used ASIC’s Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) framework, which commenced in October 2021 and requires issuers to take a consumer-centric approach to product design and distribution. ASIC located the sector’s problem in how firms design and distribute their products. CMC’s report locates it in how clients think.
CMC’s parent reported record assets under administration of £46.3 billion in FY2026, up from £37.5 billion in FY2025, with the Australian stockbroking business cited as a support. The group is growing; the regulatory backdrop around CFDs in Australia is tightening. Both things are true at once, and the tension between them is what CMC Markets Brent crude trades data this week quietly surfaces, without quite saying so.
