Retail CFD broker volumes dipped to $30.4 trillion in average monthly trading in the second quarter of 2026, down 9.3% from $33.5 trillion in the first quarter, but only 1.4% below the same period a year earlier, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence. The quarterly pullback looks less like a structural retreat and more like a normalisation after an unusually strong start to the year.
For context, Q2 2025 was the first time the global retail FX and CFD industry had broken the $30 trillion monthly volume threshold. Holding close to that level a year on suggests the expansion of the past 18 months has largely stuck.
Retail CFD Broker Volumes Tell Two Different Stories
The aggregate number conceals a split picture. Of the 21 brokers tracked in the ranking, 18 reported lower volume than in Q1 2026. Yet all of the top 10 brokers sat above their levels from a year earlier. The market cooled at the margins while the leading names grew.
The ranking order itself shifted. One broker that sat fourth by volume in Q2 2025 now leads the table after more than doubling its monthly total over the intervening year. The broker that held top spot a year ago has dropped to third.
Two new FX and CFD brokers applied to join the FM Intelligence volume ranking during the quarter, according to FXBrokerTrust, suggesting the competitive pressure at the top is not going unnoticed further down the field.
EC Markets and TMGM Cross the $2 Trillion Monthly Mark
The headline story inside the ranking is the scale of the two leading brokers. EC Markets posted an average monthly volume of $2.11 trillion in Q2 2026, up from $1.71 trillion in Q1 2026, according to TradingView and Finance Magnates. As recently as Q4 2025, EC Markets was at $1.49 trillion, meaning the firm has grown its monthly average by more than 40% in two quarters.
Sydney-based TMGM posted $2.03 trillion in average monthly volume for the same quarter, up from $1.39 trillion in Q4 2025. FM Intelligence noted that Q1 2026 was the first time any single broker in its tracked group had cleared $2 trillion in a single quarter. In Q2 2026, two did it simultaneously.
The FM Intelligence platform tracks $84.5 trillion in trading volume and 17.7 million active accounts across the global FX and CFD industry, so the two brokers now account for a material share of the universe the platform covers.
Volume Leaders Barely Trade Currencies
The composition of that volume is where retail CFD broker volumes get complicated. The firm leading the ranking booked 97% of its reported volume outside FX, in instruments including equities, indices, commodities, and crypto CFDs (contracts for difference, which let traders take leveraged positions without owning the underlying asset). Two of its closest rivals reported 99%.
The ranking is titled an FX and broker volumes report, but for the firms at the very top, currency trading is almost incidental. Retail investors using these platforms to trade shares or commodity CFDs are contributing to figures that sit inside an ostensibly forex-focused dataset.
Not every broker followed the non-FX pattern. CFI Financial Group reported Q2 2026 client trading volume of $3.03 trillion, a 31% increase on Q1 2026 and a 101% rise year-on-year, according to FX News Group. CFI described its H1 2026 total of $5.34 trillion as its strongest first half on record.
The CFI figures sit outside the FM Intelligence aggregate cited at the top of this piece: the two datasets cover overlapping but not identical broker populations, so the numbers should not be added together.
The Q3 2026 numbers will show whether the Q2 dip was seasonal or the start of a plateau. If the top-10 brokers continue growing while the rest of the field contracts, the concentration at the head of the ranking will only deepen.
