In a month where most FX brokers saw a slight decline, Alpari continued to plow forward, driven by its home market in Russia.
Forex Industry News… Global FX broker Alpari has reported its best ever month in March, with total group volumes coming in at $238 billion — just eclipsing February’s $237 billion at Alpari. These stellar results come during a month when we have seen trading volumes at most other FX brokers and Forex ECNs take a bit of a breather from a very strong start to the year in January and February.
However the story isn’t all rosy at Alpari. As per the chart below, LeapRate has learned that Alpari’s volume growth has been driven mainly by its home market of Russia. March volumes out of Russia for Alpari hit $140 billion, up 65% (!!) from 2012’s average of about $85 billion per month. By contrast, while still above 2012 levels, Alpari’s rest-of-the-world volumes actually declined in March from February’s record of $105 billion. Rest-of-world volumes at Alpari were $98 billion in March, or about 41% of the company total. Historically, Russia/CIS volumes and rest-of-the-world volumes at Alpari have been fairly split 50:50.
Clients in Russia at Alpari seem to have similar trading tastes to clients around the world — more than half of all volume (59%, actually) came from good ol’ EURUSD trading, and a further 19% of volumes from GBPUSD. Again, fairly close to norms we see around the world.
Alpari has undergone some changes of late, which seem to be bearing fruit. The Group used to consist of four distinct fiefdoms — Russia, London, USA, and Cyprus (as well as a “stealth” brand ForexTime for other regions and for testing new products and campaigns) — which didn’t always mesh well together or get along, especially when it came to deciding which entity could or should go after new markets, such as the rapidly growing Arab Forex market, or the Far East.
With the move of Alpari USA head Daniel Skowronski to the UK as CEO of the London-based operation, and the splitoff of Alpari FS Cyprus with Alpari co-founder Andrey Dashin along with the ForexTime brand, Alpari seems to be much leaner and focused, with Alpari Russia doing well growing the Russian-language brand, and Skowronski and his team in London covering Europe and essentially the rest of the world.
For the complete Alpari press release click here.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.