Trades Fell 23%, Bet Sizes Jumped 16%: Capital.com's $1.13 Trillion Q2

Capital.com’s Q2 2026 update shows a softer quarter for retail CFD/FX trading activity, with total client volume falling to $1.13 trillion from $1.27 trillion in Q1 and trade counts dropping 23.2% to 34.9 million. Despite lower overall activity, gold remained the dominant instrument, taking 42.4% of platform volume as geopolitical tension, a Strait of Hormuz closure, and later gold’s pullback toward $4,000 an ounce drove heavy demand. The report also highlights a shift toward larger but fewer trades, with average trade size rising 16% to $32,418. Broader market activity rotated across equities, indices and energy, with the US Tech 100 and WTI crude gaining share during the quarter. The data suggests continued strong interest in gold as a safe-haven and trading anchor, while risk-management habits improved as stop-loss adoption rose.