Top 10 currency traders are earning- Does Volatility lead to profits?

These are the top 10 currency traders in the world. When i check their trading revenues/profits (proprietary currency trading/desk), it seems everybody is earning year after year.



Top 10 currency traders



Deutsche Bank20.96%

UBS AG14.58%

Barclays Capital10.45%

Royal Bank of Scotland8.19%

Citi7.32%

JPMorgan5.43%

HSBC4.09%

Goldman Sachs3.35%

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...erland.svg.png Credit Suisse3.05%

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...France.svg.png BNP Paribas2.26%



The top 10 currency traders constitute roughly 75% forex volume. If all of them are earning, is it the volatility in prices which is financing their profits?

Volatility is inflation/deflation of prices. So when prices move, it finances traders profits and it seems everyone is earning from volatility.


The loosers are exporters, importers and the economy because they need to face volatile rates on daily/weekly basis for running their business.

For example: The oil. When Oil increases by $ 10, US economy GDP growth is reduced by 0.3%. This lost growth is transferred to saudi arabia, middle east/oil producing nations enriching their oil export revenue.

In Financial market, the volatility in oil which is simply inflation/deflation of prices translates into profits for oil traders.


Views from fellow traders are welcome.

Can anyone can add his/her intelligent opinions?

Love and Peace.

Exporters/Importers are hedgers in currency futures market. For each money they lost in the futures market, they made it back in their real day-to-day business.

Futures is a zero-sum game (in $ sense), but certainly not a zero-benefit game. Speculators make money while hedgers protect themselves from volatility. Its a win-win.