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Trading mix moves beyond metals
FM Intelligence's preliminary split puts metals at about 69% of retail CFD volume in the third quarter of 2026. That is lower than the 78% recorded in the second quarter, while FX's portion advanced from 10% to 16%.
The brokers that have reported so far imply an overall volume increase of about 8% against the second quarter. That would not fully reverse the prior contraction: monthly retail volume dropped 9.3% to $30.4 trillion in the second quarter, leaving the estimated rebound about 2% below the first quarter, according to FinanceMagnates.com's calculation.
Metals retain a wide lead
The share shift has not changed the ranking of the main categories. Metals were still more than four times the size of FX, with gold the principal instrument. The concentration predates this quarter: FM Intelligence data showed metals CFDs exceeding 60% of global broker volume in the first half of 2025, and gold accounted for nearly 80% of metals activity.
Combining the share estimates with the overall 8% expansion suggests metals volume was about 4% lower than in the second quarter, while FX was roughly 70% higher. These are derived comparisons, not reported broker totals, and depend on the early sample representing the firms used for the second-quarter mix.
Yen activity lifted currency volumes
FX advanced during a quarter of yen intervention and policy changes. Japan's Ministry of Finance bought yen on July 30; the US Treasury joined the following day, in the two governments' first coordinated intervention since 2011.
In September, the Federal Reserve increased rates for the first time since 2023, with the Bank of Japan acting two days later. Cboe FX recorded a 45.3% rise in USD/JPY volume that month, its strongest increase among its five largest pairs. Annualised USD/JPY volatility reached 9.0% in the third quarter, against 5.4% in the second, using daily closing prices.
Broker reports use different measures
Across FM Intelligence's broader broker sample, FX's share of monthly activity had fallen to 13.7% in the second quarter from 26.8% a year earlier; the preliminary cohort showed 10% for that same quarter. EC Markets, the leading broker in FM Intelligence's volume tracker, generated about $0.06 trillion of its $2.1 trillion average monthly second-quarter volume from currency pairs. These provisional figures and comparisons were reported by Finance Magnates.
XTB's third-quarter results put commodity CFDs at 70.8% of gross result on financial instruments, up from 60.5% in the second quarter. That is a revenue measure, not a volume share. FM Intelligence's full analysis also compares mobile and desktop activity, where the shift was larger than the change between instruments; the final quarterly report will follow once remaining brokers submit their data.
What this means on the desk
The movement is a volume signal, not a direct measure of revenue, margin use or operational workload. Risk and operations teams should check whether instrument mappings in trade capture, exposure aggregation and client reporting distinguish metals from FX consistently, then compare their own activity with the provisional broker sample.
The category estimates rely on the early broker group being comparable with the firms behind the second-quarter shares. Before using them to change controls or capacity assumptions, operators should check whether later submissions alter the mix and how the larger mobile and desktop shift divides across channels. The figures do not quantify the impact on latency, reconciliation or operating costs for an individual firm.
