Forex Trading Statistics Australia

The Australian forex numbers for 2026

Australian forex trading statistics show 68% of retail CFD clients, 133,674 of 195,386, lost money in FY2023-24 (ASIC REP 828, 20 January 2026). The Australian dollar was on one side of 6.1% of global OTC forex turnover in April 2025, about US$582.5 billion daily, per the BIS Triennial Survey, June 2026.

I lead with the loss-rate figure rather than the turnover headlines because historic retail outcomes answer the question you actually ask before choosing a broker: how have accounts like yours tended to fare under ASIC oversight? The BIS data shows the Australian dollar was on one side of about US$582.5 billion of daily global turnover in April 2025, which is real context but wholesale context. In my view, the FY2023-24 loss record deserves the first word, and I would treat any page that opens with market size instead as answering a different question.

How big is the Australian retail forex market?

ASIC REP 828 (Table 4, published 20 January 2026) shows 195,386 retail clients traded or held CFDs during FY2023-24.

Active trader counts

These are two observation windows over the same issuer population, not two estimates of one group. The 195,386 figure counts retail CFD clients reported by issuers who traded or held CFDs at least once during FY2023-24, while the 109,858 figure is the mean quarterly active count over that same year, both from REP 828 published 20 January 2026. ASIC’s surveyed issuer population explicitly includes foreign retail clients and all CFD underlyings, so these are issuer-reported historical CFD totals, not a current census of unique Australian resident forex traders. I prefer to keep the period and population labels attached to every figure here, because that is what stops you mistaking an issuer-reported annual count for a live Australian trader census.

What the available statistics cover

The sources here each measure specific outcomes over specified periods. REP 828 covers issuer-reported CFD client counts and loss outcomes for FY2023-24, and also contains historical broker-relative client-share charts and a new-client activity cohort. The BIS annex measures worldwide OTC turnover in April 2025, the AFXC survey measures Australian sales-desk turnover in April 2026, and our own registry and popularity method count platform availability and branded search interest. None of these establishes a current 2026 count of unique Australian resident forex traders, average or median account balances, trader demographics, platform trade frequency or client shares among those residents. I would not push any figure further than what it measures, and neither should you.

ASIC retail loss-rate data

ASIC’s Product Intervention Order, made 22 October 2020 and effective 29 March 2021, capped major-currency retail leverage at 30:1 and applied standardised margin close-out protections, but it did not require issuers to publish issuer-specific loss warnings. Instrument 2022/259, which commenced 11 April 2022, keeps the order in force until the end of 23 May 2027 unless it is revoked earlier. Where you see a voluntary loss figure, read it according to its own stated population and period rather than as an ASIC mandate.

What ASIC measured

In FY2023-24, 68% of retail CFD investors lost money, with total losses exceeding A$458 million including A$73 million in fees (ASIC REP 828, published 20 January 2026; media release). These figures cover CFDs across all underlyings, not forex-only traders. The earlier figure, 72%, comes from ASIC’s 2017 retail OTC derivatives sector review (REP 626, published 22 August 2019, page 4 and footnote 1), a distinct review of a distinct population, and ASIC notes it separately from margin FX.

These are two different sector reviews with different periods and populations, so the movement from 72% to 68% is not controlled evidence that the Product Intervention Order caused a change. I would not read causation into it, and neither should you. The full source URLs, publication dates and capture metadata sit in our CSV of ASIC retail CFD loss rates.

Interpretation and costs

ASIC’s FY2023-24 survey summary, published 20 January 2026, reported retail CFD investors lost more than A$458 million net, including A$73 million in fees. I treat that as historic sector outcomes, not a forecast of your results. What drives your cost line is your monthly volume: the calculator totals spread and commission at that volume on fixed assumptions, so more trading means higher modelled totals. I suggest you run your shortlist through our broker cost calculator and read our leverage guide to see how gearing fits your approach.

AUD daily forex turnover and global market share

AUD share of global turnover

The BIS Triennial Survey measured April 2025, with the final detailed annex published in June 2026. Global daily OTC forex turnover was US$9.51 trillion in April 2025 on a net-net basis that adjusts for local and cross-border interdealer double counting. AUD was on one side of about US$582.5 billion daily in April 2025, a share of 6.1%, seventh among currencies. This is a global OTC market measure that includes institutional activity, not a local retail trader dataset, so I would not draw conclusions from it about the spreads or execution you will see at your broker.

Daily turnover figures (BIS 2025)

AUD/USD alone traded US$467.113 billion daily in April 2025, 4.9% of global turnover, sixth among all pairs and the largest AUD pair. Currency shares sum to 200% because two currencies feature in every trade; pair shares sum to 100%.

Where AUD trades happen

Australia’s all-currency turnover was about US$201 billion daily in April 2025, making Australia the eleventh trading centre. This uses a net-gross basis, adjusting local interdealer double counting but not cross-border, so it is not comparable with the global net-net total. Separately, the AFXC April 2026 survey of 23 financial institutions put Australian sales-desk OTC forex turnover at US$197.7 billion daily in April 2026, counting deals struck in Australia regardless of where they are booked. I keep the two scopes separate because national all-currency turnover and global AUD turnover answer different aggregate questions about different populations. Before you compare the totals, check the period and the counting basis for each, so you can read your own figures against the right denominator.

Australian forex market turnover, instruments and participants

Australian forex turnover averaged US$200.9 billion a day in April 2025, the highest level on record, making Australia the eleventh largest FX trading centre, the RBA reported on 1 October 2025 in its 2025 BIS Triennial Survey results. A trade counts as Australian when the sales desk is located in Australia, regardless of where it is booked.

Turnover since 2001

Turnover rose from US$150.4 billion a day in April 2022 to US$200.9 billion in April 2025, a rise the RBA describes as 34 per cent, overtaking the previous peak of US$192.1 billion set in April 2010. The RBA notes the April 2025 survey ran during a period of heightened FX volatility and a surge of trading after several trade policy announcements by major economies. The fall between 2013 and 2016 is partly a series break, because the way the data were collected changed in April 2016. Global turnover grew 27.3% over the same three years, but on the BIS net-net basis, which also strips cross-border double counting, so the two growth rates sit side by side only with that caveat.

The AFXC runs a separate semi-annual survey of 23 financial institutions covering all OTC FX instruments in the Australian market, and its April 2025 figure of US$200.7 billion a day differs slightly from the triennial US$200.9 billion. The October 2025 survey put turnover at US$178.6 billion a day, and April 2026 came in at US$197.7 billion.

Instruments traded in Australia

FX swaps led at US$107.3 billion a day, 53.4% of Australian turnover in April 2025, above the global share of 42.2%, because banks use them to fund and hedge currency positions. Spot ran at US$50.7 billion, 25.2% against the global 31.0%. Since April 2022, spot grew 48%, outright forwards 43%, FX swaps 24% and currency swaps 101%, while currency options fell 35%. In my view you should read this headline as a wholesale funding market, because more than half of it is swaps between institutions rather than anything a retail account produces.

Who trades forex in Australia

Trades with reporting dealers, the bank desks that quote prices, took US$151.3 billion a day, or 75.3% of April 2025 turnover. Other financial institutions took 19.9%, including US$3.6 billion with hedge funds and proprietary trading firms, while non-financial customers such as companies and governments took 4.8%. Neither the RBA nor the BIS tables publish a retail-driven figure for Australia; globally, retail-driven trades were 2.5% of turnover in April 2025. If you trade CFDs, your volume is not separately measured here, so treat the headline as institutional context.

Currency pairs traded in Australia

AUD/USD carried 41.2% of Australian turnover in April 2025, ahead of EUR/USD at 12.9% and USD/JPY at 11.6%. The Australian dollar sat on one side of US$93.7 billion a day, 46.6% of local turnover, and it slipped to the seventh most traded currency globally as the Swiss franc moved past it, from US$388 billion in April 2022 to US$601 billion in April 2025 against the AUD’s US$582.5 billion. I would treat the leading pairs as your benchmark markets, because that is where wholesale depth sits, and you can compare a broker’s quoted spreads on them, starting with the currency pair guide if the terminology is new.

How long Australian forex deals run

Of combined outright forward and FX swap turnover in April 2025, 38.4% matured within one day and 70.5% within a week, according to the BIS final annex published in June 2026. FX swaps alone ran 73.1% within seven days. These are institutional funding and hedging contracts, so they tell you nothing about how long a retail trader holds a position.

Australia against other trading centres

Australia sat eleventh at US$200.9 billion a day, just behind Canada at US$232.7 billion and China at US$235.1 billion. The country rows are net-gross, so they double count across borders and are not shares of the global total. I would grab the full 2025 turnover tables as a CSV we compiled, and read the RBA results page and the BIS final annex as the primary files.

Platform availability at ASIC brokers we track

At our last count, 6 October 2026, platform availability across the ASIC-regulated brokers we track broke down as follows:

Our chart counts how many of the ASIC-regulated brokers we track offered each platform on 6 October 2026. MetaTrader 4 led at 24, and cTrader was the narrowest at 6.

Counts are our own, taken across the 33 ASIC-regulated brokers on our list at the last adjustment, 6 October 2026, when INGOT Brokers joined as an MT5-only broker and FOREX.com’s AU entity was recorded as offering no MT5. We recomputed them on 16 July 2026, adjusted MT5 on 23 July 2026 when ThinkMarkets’ AU entity was confirmed to offer no MT5, and adjusted again on 26 July 2026 when Focus Markets was added as an MT5-only broker. Proprietary counts were adjusted on 6 August 2026 when Trading 212 was added as a proprietary-only broker, and MT4 and proprietary were both adjusted on 12 August 2026 when Fortrade was added. The MetaTrader 5 and proprietary counts were both adjusted on 8 September 2026, when a live Australian account at Axi confirmed that Axi offers MetaTrader 5 and a web-only proprietary platform of its own. The MetaTrader 4 and cTrader counts were both adjusted on 26 September 2026, after the live Australian account at Trade Nation ran on MetaTrader 4 and the Australian client portal at Blueberry Markets offered cTrader on the live account we opened there. On 1 October 2026 the proprietary count moved from 16 to 17, when a frame from our live AUD account at ThinkMarkets showed its ThinkTrader platform quoting two-way prices on every instrument in the watch list, so ThinkTrader now counts. Brokers offering more than one platform appear in more than one row.

Those platform counts measure how many brokers offer each platform, not active users or market share, and brokers running several platforms appear in several rows. Noam Korbl runs our live spread and commission capture programme, which is documented in our methodology; the platform availability registry is a separate measure. I would check which platforms a broker offers before shortlisting anyone, because your tool choice changes which brokers are even open to you. If you are weighing the two MetaTrader generations, our MT4 vs MT5 comparison shows which brokers offer which, and our cTrader guide does the same.

What the data tells us about retail outcomes

The retail evidence on this page is cohort history, and what you can act on is cost and risk structure. My own takeaway from the FY2023-24 figures is that the controllable inputs deserve more of your attention than the headline loss rate. Compare all-in spread and commission with the cost calculator, and size positions with drawdown in mind. The rest of our education section covers those mechanics in depth.

Forex broker popularity method

Our broker popularity method, as of 2 October 2026, works as follows. We pull monthly Australian Google Ads search volume via DataForSEO, and a term qualifies when the broker’s own website, or a configured brand host alias or subdomain, appears as the first organic result in Australia. Brokers are ranked by brand search volume in descending order, with login and app searches used only to break ties in equal brand volume. Month-on-month percentage changes display only when the previous month had at least 1,000 searches, rankings refresh from the 15th with the newest month Google has published, and the table is labelled with that month. I use these rankings as a routing start rather than a quality signal, because search interest tells you which brands Australians are looking at, not how many clients they hold or how good they are. You can treat the table at our popularity rankings the same way across the 33 brokers we track.