FX week in review: ActivTrades revenue falls, Forex.com’s rises, eToro ad issues
As it was a relatively quiet week for Forex industry news and executive moves, we thought that it would be a good time to thank our audience and give ourselves a small pat-on-the-back for FNG becoming the most read and trusted source for what’s really going on in the FX sector.
We have a couple recent examples to point out, such as our report this week covering ActivTrades’ 2020 results. While most other FX blogs chose to toe the party line and blindly repeat the company’s glowing headlines of “record results for 2020”, FNG dug a little deeper and discovered that like at some other brokers the “great stuff” happened in a small span of time in early 2020, while activity was way, way down and operating at near breakeven the whole second half of the year. (We also had a similar report on Dukascopy’s 2020 results).
At FNG we call it like it is, good or bad, and we think people appreciate that.
And it certainly shows in the numbers. Here’s how Alexa stacks us up next to Finance Magnates. Visitors to FNG spend more than 8x (!!) as much time on our site, and visit more than 4x as many pages, as on Magnates. We think that speaks to the quality and credibility of our reporting.
Also on social media. More than 2x as many people have signed up to follow us on LinkedIn over the past 30 days, and our posts get more than 2.5x as much engagement.
Data per LinkedIn Analytics, past 30 days to May 12, 2021.
But again, we have you, our reader, to thank. We will continue to take your trust in us very seriously.
Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear this week on FNG included:
Exclusive: ActivTrades revenue down 45% in 2H-2020, no profit. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that London based Retail FX and CFDs broker ActivTrades has seen a severe decline in activity during the second half of 2020, with revenues down by 45% from 1H-2020 and the company operating at roughly a breakeven level. ActivTrades had – like many online brokers – a record first half of the year in terms of both revenues and profits, with much of the action coming in late Q1 at the outset of the global COVID pandemic. Wild market volatility across both currencies and equities in late February and throughout March 2020 led to record trading volumes (and revenues and profits) at many brokers. However at ActivTrades that didn’t carry over into the second half of 2020.
Gain Capital produces $71 million of revenue for StoneX in Q2-2021. Gain Capital, and its Forex.com and City Index brands, produced $71.2 million of StoneX’s record $471.4 million of Revenue in the company’s latest financial quarter to March 31, 2021. (That would be StoneX’s Q2-2021, with the company having a September 30 fiscal year end). The StoneX-Gain Capital acquisition has been looking better and better each quarter for the company. StoneX spent $236 million to buy Gain Capital in mid 2020, and has already brought in more than half that amount in Revenues for the company, in just the last six months. Revenues from Gain Capital were $54.8 million last quarter (ending December 31, 2020), such that the latest quarter of Jan-Feb-Mar 2021 was up by 30%.
Russian authorities find law violations in eToro ad on Google. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has detected several violations of the Russian advertising laws in an eToro ad disseminated via Google AdWords. The FAS investigation followed a complaint by Russia’s FX self-regulatory organization AFD. The ad in question concerned products and services offered by eToro (Europe) Ltd. The ad (in Russian) stated that eToro is the world’s biggest social trading platform, offering investments in shares, oil, crypto, bonds, currencies and gold. The Moscow office of FAS has determined that the ad violates the law by (inter alia) making incorrect comparisons with services offered by other firms and advertising the services of a company that operates without a license issued by the Central Bank of Russia.
ETX Capital acquires savings app Oval Money. Switzerland based fintech investment firm Guru Capital SA has announced that an agreement has been reached for the acquisition of substantially all the assets of UK based Fintech company Oval Money Ltd. Oval will be acquired by and integrated into the UK based online CFD Broker ETX Capital, a Guru Capital portfolio company. Launched in 2017, Oval operates a very successful mobile app that has over 100,000 active users, helping them to save and invest through their marketplace of financial products, automatically and on a recurring basis. Oval was created and is run by former Uber Italy CEO Benedetta Arese Lucini, former CEO of Uber Italy, alongside Claudio Bedino and Edoardo Benedetto, co-founders of do-it-yourself crowdfunding platform Starteed.com, and AI expert Simone Marzola.
Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:
❑ Siege FX hires HSBC exec Tina Kokkinos as COO.
❑ Plus500 appoints Jacob Frenkel to Regulatory & Risk Committee.
❑ Aquis Exchange names David Stevens its Chief Revenue Officer.