Platforms · Software · Providers · Markets
A broker at the top of the trading-volume table ranked 57th for website traffic, while the most-visited broker placed 14th by volume, research presented at the Finance Magnates Intelligence Forum showed. The event took place on September 30 at the Amara Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus. The contrast shows why web visits alone cannot establish a broker's market position: they measure online attention, not trading activity.
Ramzi Ahmad, Director of Intelligence at Finance Magnates, said the figures distinguish a firm's ability to attract prospective traders from its ability to convert and retain them. The Forum brought together retail trading and financial services professionals to discuss data, regulation, growth and competition. Its speakers included Maciej Szeląg, CEE FinTech Lead at AWS; Philios Petrides, Forex and Fintech Data Executive and BI Consultant; Neophytos Papageorgiou, CEO of Finance Magnates; and Demetris Koutsomichalis, Data Analyst at Finance Magnates.
Traffic and volume diverge
Separate figures from Finance Magnates Intelligence put reported broker trading volume at $50.7 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, a rise of 94.2% from the first quarter. The dataset recorded 19.4 million active trading accounts in the first half of 2026 and a 170% quarter-on-quarter increase in active accounts. The volume total is classified as reported, rather than fully verified across the retail trading market, and should be read on that basis.
The leaders also changed between quarters. TMGM recorded the highest average monthly reported volume in the first quarter, at $2.1 trillion, with a 95% confidence score.
EC Markets took the lead in the second quarter with $2.2 trillion and an 85% confidence score. Those quarterly volume measures are separate from the Forum's traffic-to-volume ranking comparison.
Regional traffic data showed falls in several markets in the third quarter of 2026. Europe represented 42% of tracked global share of voice, with 60.2 million organic users, down 32% quarter on quarter. Asia-Pacific made up 30.5%, with 43.8 million organic users, a 33% decline. North America had the largest reported drop, at 59%. Latin America and Africa each accounted for 4.7% of tracked global share, down 14% and 13%, respectively.
The Middle East and North Africa represented 4.1%, with 5.9 million organic users, down 30%. Japan was the sole market to post quarter-on-quarter growth of more than 18.5%. These are web activity measures, not evidence of matching moves in deposits or trading.
Forum discussions also covered withdrawal complaints and the quality of broker data. Two-thirds of social-media complaints being tracked related to withdrawals, while only 2% of brokers on the tracked list had communications explaining their withdrawal processes. The figures describe different things: complaints on one side and broker communications on the other. Koutsomichalis said data comparisons require checking that a figure is accurate and relevant, and that it belongs to the right broker, brand and legal entity. When sources conflict, the discussion favoured returning to the underlying source rather than choosing a convenient figure or averaging the numbers.
Who the measures cover
The figures concern brokers and markets included in Finance Magnates Intelligence's research, not necessarily every firm or customer channel. The Forum also considered the role of introducing brokers and other partners, which can refer clients without those clients first visiting a broker's website.
The rankings alone do not quantify how much activity comes through those routes. The event's agenda included an executive panel on regulation, growth and competitiveness, a roundtable on AI, regulation, trading volumes, liquidity, data infrastructure and compliance, and an AWS presentation on financial data infrastructure.
The distinction between the measures and the limits of the data were also described by Finance Magnates. The Forum was set up as an executive discussion, with attendees invited to test ideas and share business experience. The report does not set out a new platform deployment, regulatory deadline or implementation date.
The integration question
For operations and risk teams, the practical issue is whether internal reporting keeps traffic, reported volume, active accounts and complaints as separate measures. Each has a different definition and qualification. A dashboard that combines them into a single broker ranking would need to make those distinctions visible, particularly where one volume figure is reported and another has a confidence score.
Teams using broker or market claims in client, partner or compliance material should check which legal entity and brand a number belongs to, how it was verified, and whether it measures visits, trading or another activity. The Forum discussion did not establish that the traffic and volume rankings apply uniformly across brokers, or that withdrawal patterns are the same across complaint channels.
Before incorporating the figures into monitoring or reporting, operators should ask what sits behind each data field, how often it is refreshed, and how disagreements between providers are resolved. The source does not specify those operational details, nor does it quantify the contribution of introducing brokers to trading activity. Those are questions to settle with the data provider before using the measures as inputs to infrastructure or risk decisions.
