Forex Trading Statistics in Australia (2026)

Summary, the key Australian forex numbers for 2026

If you only want the headline figures, here they are:

• Australia has roughly 170,000 active retail CFD and forex traders as of early 2026, based on ASIC-broker disclosures across the AFSL holders we track
• Between 65% and 85% of retail CFD accounts lose money at any given Australian broker, per the standardised risk warnings ASIC requires brokers to publish
• The AUD is the fifth-most-traded currency globally, with around 6.4% share of daily global forex turnover per the 2022 BIS Triennial Survey (the next BIS update is due in 2025 to 2026 data)
• Daily forex turnover involving the AUD sits around USD 470 billion globally, of which a relatively small fraction is settled in Australia
• The five largest ASIC-regulated CFD brokers by AU active client base are CMC Markets, IG Markets, Pepperstone, IC Markets and Plus500
• Retail trader demographics skew male (roughly 80 to 85%) and aged 25 to 44, with growing participation from the 45 to 60 cohort over the past three years

These are not advisory figures. They’re a reference set we maintain so traders can compare their own activity and outcomes against the wider AU market.

How big is the Australian retail forex market?

Australia is one of the most active retail CFD jurisdictions globally, despite being a comparatively small population market. Two factors drive this. The first is the depth of the local broker industry. There are 30 ASIC-regulated AFSL holders offering retail CFDs locally, many with parent operations in the UK, Cyprus or Israel that route AU clients through the Australian entity. The second is participation rates. Australian retail traders trade more frequently than most global peers and have done so since the early 2000s.

Active trader counts

ASIC-broker public disclosures and PDS filings put the Australian retail CFD active client base at approximately 170,000 to 180,000 as of early 2026. “Active” here means an account that placed at least one trade in the preceding 12 months. The total number of registered (but not necessarily active) AU CFD accounts is meaningfully higher, closer to 400,000 to 500,000 across all licensed brokers combined.

For context, the active retail CFD population in 2018 (pre-PIO) was estimated at around 110,000 by ASIC. The market grew through the COVID-era retail trading boom of 2020 to 2021, plateaued after the Product Intervention Order took effect in March 2021, and has stabilised since.

Account funding levels

Average funded retail CFD account size in Australia sits around AUD 4,500 to AUD 6,500. Median balances are lower, typically AUD 1,200 to AUD 2,000, because account distributions are heavily right-skewed. A small number of high-balance accounts pull the average up.

Trade frequency

Active AU retail CFD traders place roughly 80 to 120 trades per quarter on average. High-frequency scalpers can reach 500+ trades per quarter. Position traders sit in the 20 to 40 range. These figures vary widely by broker because of platform mix (MT4/MT5/cTrader users tend to trade more frequently than proprietary-platform users like CMC Next Generation).

ASIC retail loss-rate disclosures

Since the ASIC Product Intervention Order took effect on 29 March 2021, every CFD broker offering retail products in Australia must display a standardised risk warning showing the percentage of retail accounts that lost money over the most recent reporting period. This is one of the strongest data sets we have on actual retail outcomes.

The 65 to 85% loss-rate range

Across the 30 ASIC-regulated brokers we track, the disclosed retail loss rate ranges from approximately 65% to 85%. The variation is real. Brokers with larger institutional or pro-trader bases typically disclose lower retail-loss percentages because their retail population is, on average, more experienced. Brokers with high retail-only client bases disclose higher figures.

Broker	Disclosed retail loss rate (most recent period)
CMC Markets	~70%
IG Markets	~71%
Pepperstone	~75%
IC Markets	~74%
Plus500	~82%
eToro	~76%
OANDA	~68%
Vantage	~78%

Verify the current percentage on each broker’s homepage on the day of publish. The figures rotate quarterly and the AU disclosures can shift one to three percentage points period over period.

Why loss rates are persistently high

ASIC’s 2019 to 2020 market review identified four drivers behind the high retail loss rate:

1. Excessive leverage before the PIO took effect (some brokers offered 500:1 to retail accounts pre-2021)
2. Over-trading relative to account size, which compounds spread and commission costs
3. Negative skew in retail strategies, traders cut winners early and let losers run
4. Insufficient education on margin, position sizing and risk-of-ruin maths

The 30:1 cap on majors and the 50% margin close-out rule directly target factors 1 and 2. The other two are behavioural and harder to regulate. ASIC’s standardised risk warning is the lever for factor 4.

AUD daily forex turnover and global market share

The Bank for International Settlements runs the Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity. The most recent survey (2022 data, published April 2023) is the canonical source on global forex turnover. The next survey covers April 2025 trading activity and the headline figures are due in late 2025 with full data in early 2026.

AUD share of global turnover

The Australian dollar is the fifth-most-traded currency globally, behind only the USD, EUR, JPY and GBP. AUD’s share of total global forex turnover sat at:

• 2010: 7.6%
• 2013: 8.6%
• 2016: 6.9%
• 2019: 6.8%
• 2022: 6.4%

The mild decline since 2013 reflects two things. First, growing share for emerging market currencies (CNY in particular). Second, slightly lower carry-trade interest in AUD as the RBA’s policy rate trended down through the 2010s. The AUD remains a major reserve currency proxy for institutional flows and is structurally embedded in commodity-currency carry strategies.

Daily turnover figures (BIS 2022)

Global forex daily turnover (April 2022 data): USD 7.5 trillion per day total. Of that, the AUD was on one side of approximately USD 470 to 480 billion of daily turnover. AUD/USD alone accounted for around USD 200 billion of daily volume, making it the fourth-most-traded currency pair globally (behind EUR/USD, USD/JPY and GBP/USD).

Where AUD trades happen

Most AUD trading by volume happens outside Australia. London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo together account for the bulk of AUD turnover. Sydney is a meaningful but smaller centre. The BIS reports Sydney’s share of global forex turnover at around 4% across all pairs, ranking it the seventh-largest forex trading centre globally.

AU retail trader demographics

Demographic data from broker onboarding records (anonymised, aggregated and shared at industry level) gives us a current picture of who’s trading retail forex in Australia.

Age distribution

The 25 to 44 cohort makes up 60% of the active base. Participation in the 45+ band has grown steadily since 2020, reflecting both the COVID-era expansion of self-directed investing and the ongoing migration from term deposits and managed funds toward direct trading.

Gender split

Australian retail CFD trading remains heavily male-skewed. Current estimates put the active AU retail base at roughly 82 to 85% male and 15 to 18% female. This is consistent with global patterns (the male share is broadly similar in the UK, EU and Singapore) and is a long-running structural feature rather than a recent trend.

State distribution

Active AU retail CFD traders by state of residence, indexed against population:

• New South Wales: 36% of active base (32% of population), over-indexed
• Victoria: 28% of active base (26% of population), slightly over
• Queensland: 18% of active base (20% of population)
• Western Australia: 9% of active base (11% of population)
• South Australia: 5% of active base (7% of population)
• Other (TAS, ACT, NT): 4%

Sydney and Melbourne are the two heaviest concentrations, which fits the broader pattern of Australian financial services activity. Brisbane has grown as a retail trading hub since 2020.

Broker market share in Australia

Estimating exact broker market share is hard because most ASIC-regulated brokers don’t publish AU-specific client counts. The figures below are our estimates based on triangulating ASIC filings, public earnings reports for listed brokers, and our own client-onboarding survey.

Broker	Estimated AU active client share	Notes
CMC Markets	~14%	ASX-listed, longest-tenured AU retail CFD broker
IG Markets	~12%	Largest CFD broker by global revenue
Pepperstone	~10%	Melbourne-headquartered, Tier-1 trust
IC Markets	~9%	Sydney-headquartered, scalper-focused
Plus500	~8%	LSE-listed, retail-friendly platform
eToro	~6%	Social/copy trading category leader
OANDA	~5%	Strong fundamentals, education focus
Other 23 brokers	~36%	Long-tail across Vantage, TMGM, FP Markets, Fusion, AvaTrade and others

The five largest brokers account for roughly half the AU active retail CFD base. The mid-tier (Vantage, TMGM, FP Markets, Fusion, AvaTrade, ThinkMarkets, Eightcap) collectively serves another 25 to 30%. The remainder is fragmented across the smaller AFSL holders.

Platform usage in Australia

Among the 30 ASIC-regulated brokers we track, platform availability and usage breaks down as:

MT4 remains the most widely used platform for AU retail forex traders despite MT5 being the newer release. The MT4 EA ecosystem keeps it sticky among algorithmic traders. Proprietary platforms (CMC Next Generation, IG web, Plus500 WebTrader, eToro) command share among traders who prioritise integrated research, sentiment data and multi-asset coverage.

For more on platform choice, see our MT4 vs MT5 comparison and the dedicated cTrader page.

How AU trading volumes compare globally

AU retail CFD trading is large relative to the country’s population. Per-capita active retail CFD traders sit at roughly 6.5 per 1,000 adults, which is among the highest in the developed world.

Japan’s number is genuinely an outlier. Margin FX trading is treated as a mainstream retail product there with a different regulatory framework. Singapore’s high per-capita figure reflects its role as a regional trading hub. Australia’s ratio is broadly similar to the UK’s, which is what we’d expect given comparable broker maturity and product availability.

What the data tells us about retail outcomes

A few patterns repeat across the AU retail CFD data:

• Account survival is short. The median active AU CFD account is open for 8 to 14 months before becoming inactive. Around 30% of accounts are inactive within 6 months of first deposit.
• Loss skew is persistent. Even accounting for natural churn, the disclosed 65 to 85% loss rate suggests that profitable retail trading remains the exception rather than the rule.
• Larger accounts perform better. Within broker-disclosed cohorts, accounts above AUD 10,000 in funded balance show somewhat better win rates than smaller accounts. This is partly selection (more experienced traders fund larger balances) and partly mechanical (smaller accounts hit margin close-out faster on adverse moves).
• Time in market helps. Accounts open for 24+ months disclosed lower loss rates than the broader cohort. This suggests learning curves matter, but also that survivor bias is real (unprofitable traders churn out earlier).

We’re not drawing strategy conclusions from this data here. That work belongs in our other education pages. See drawdown and risk of ruin and position sizing for the actionable side of the same numbers.