ANALYSIS: JP Morgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley extend lead in volatile April

US futures watchdog the Commodity Futures Trading Commission published on Friday its latest futures commission merchant (FCM) data, disclosing the market shares of the 63 CFTC-regulated clearing brokers.

JP Morgan extended in April its leadership in US futures clearing, growing its business by 16.2% to $66.7bn (£49.2bn) of client segregated assets.

Goldman Sachs segregated assets grew by a tenth to $42bn, Morgan Stanley assets increased 12.2% to $34.4bn and Bank of America Securities reported assets up 8% in April to $31.3bn.

In fifth place was SG Securities, which reported assets rising 4.7% to $23.4bn, followed by Citigroup, which increased its assets by 22.3%, the most of any broker in the top ten, to $21.9bn.

BNP Paribas Securities reported client assets up 14% in April to $10.1bn, Interactive Brokers, the top non-bank FCM on the list, saw assets increase 6% to $9bn and Mizuho Securities broke into the top ten by boosting assets 13.3% to $8.86bn.

The Japanese broker replaced in the top ten list Well Fargo Securities, which increased client assets by 7.7% in April to $8.84bn.

The 63 US FCMs collectively reported $347.2bn of assets in April which was up 11% on the previous month, according to the US regulator.

The top ten firms held $264.8bn, which was 76.2% of the total, compared to the top ten market share of 75.6% in March and 74.8% in February.

The largest firms have been increasing their market share steadily over recent years but there is a tendency in times of volatility to lean more heavily on larger brokers.

That said, some relatively new entrants made solid progress in April. Clear Street, which started clearing US options in April 2024, reported client assets up 28.6% to $951m and Hidden Road, which announced in April its decision to sell itself to Ripple for $1.25bn, saw assets increase 16.8% to $396m.

Robinhood Securities, which started clearing CME and Cboe Global Markets products earlier this year, reported client assets up 83.8% to $60.5m.

April was an all-time record month for the US listed derivatives market, reporting 2.06 billion contracts traded, according to FOW Data, marking the first time in history the US market has traded more than two billion lots in a single month.

CME Group reported in April average daily volume (ADV) across its derivatives markets of 35.9 million contracts, 36% higher than April 2024 and a new high for the exchange group.

Speaking as he presented first quarter results in late April, chair and chief executive Terry Duffy pointed to “unprecedented” market conditions for the upturn in April trading.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) cited a string of April records as the US exchange group presented results in late April. Overall, futures and options trading at ICE was 11.46 million lots a day in April, up 43% on the same month in 2024, according to the exchange.

Speaking as Cboe Global Markets announced strong first quarter results, the US group’s president David Howson said in May: “As we head into the second quarter volatility has remained elevated with trade tensions, recession risk and potential inflation shocks.”