User:Chris at StoneX Group Inc./sandbox

FOREX.com is a global provider of online trading services including foreign exchange worldwide, contracts for difference (CFDs) outside of the US, and unleveraged gold and silver inside the US. The company is a subsidiary of the Nasdaq-listed StoneX Group (SNEX).

While FOREX.com’s offerings vary by region, its primary offering is online foreign currency exchange trading (referred to as “forex” or “forex trading”).

The foreign exchange broker currently has affiliates and partners in over 140 countries and more than 420,000 customers. It is the largest provider of retail FX in the United States and provides trading through its proprietary trading platform, TradingView, and MetaTrader 4. FOREX.com also provides MetaTrader 5 in China, Canada, and select global markets.

FOREX.com is regulated by the National Futures Association (NFA) and Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the US, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

History
FOREX.com was founded in 2001 as part of GAIN Capital Holdings. The company gained early success in part due to owning the user-friendly domain FOREX.com, and its success propelled GAIN Capital to be one of the earliest and largest developers of online forex trading. By 2006, GAIN Capital was ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 as one of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, and life sciences companies in North America.

In 2009 the company expanded into the UK, Europe, and Japan. In 2010 it further expanded its service to Australia. Also in 2010, FOREX.com’s parent company, GAIN Capital, went public via a float on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), but the IPO was scaled back when the target price was not met. GAIN Capital reduced the number of shares offered by more than 18% when the price fell short of their $13 target. In 2012 FOREX.com expanded again, this time into Canada.

Throughout this time FOREX.com and its parent company GAIN Capital acquired several major competitors. In 2011 FOREX.com acquired dbFX, Deutsche Bank’s retail forex trading business. Then, in 2014 the company acquired UK-based rival City Index, which offers spread betting, FX, and CFD trading, for $118 million. In 2017 FOREX.com’s holding company GAIN Capital announced another acquisition, this time of FXCM’s US client base for a total of $7.2 million after the company was barred by the CFTC and NFA from providing services for US-based clients.

FOREX.com rolled out a new web trading platform in 2017 and a mobile trading platform in 2020.

In February 2020 GAIN Capital was acquired by StoneX Group Inc. The all-cash acquisition was approved by boards of both companies and worth about $236 million in equity value.

Operations
FOREX.com is a US-based company but has serviced over 420,000 customers in 18 countries across five different continents. FOREX. has offices in New York City; Warren, New Jersey; London; Sydney; Hong Kong; Tokyo; Singapore; and Seoul.

Regulatory issues
In May 2008 FOREX.com’s parent company GAIN Capital was rebuked by the China Banking Regulatory Commission for directly soliciting forex trading services to Chinese residents through the internet without a permit. In response GAIN Capital stopped servicing Chinese clients between 2008 and 2010.

GAIN Capital was fined by the National Futures Association in October 2010 for allegedly engaging in margin, liquidation, and slippage practice that benefitted the company at the customers’ expense. GAIN paid the $459,000 fine and agreed to refund customers the amount of negative slippage experienced on trades placed between May 1 and July 31.