# Trader retention for US retail-forex brokers

> For US retail-forex brokers. Through the CFTC, retail forex in the US runs through a handful of registered firms, each required to show the percentage of its clients' accounts that were profitable in each of the last four quarters. Last updated 9 November 2026. Coaching, not financial advice.

## What is trader retention for a US retail-forex broker?

It is how long each client relationship lasts in a small, registered market: at 30 September 2026, six CFTC-registered firms reported $470.5 million owed to their retail forex customers. In a Discentra pilot, success is fewer warning signs followed by a new trade within 30 minutes; more trading or deposits never count. Discentra reads the trade events you send and, when a warning sign shows (a larger re-entry in the same currency pair within 60 seconds of a loss, five trades in 15 minutes, five losing closes in a row, a trade larger than the limit you set), it sends a text or, for the stronger signs, places a phone call within 5 seconds to a client who has consented in writing. Coaching, not financial advice.

## What makes retention different at a US retail-forex broker?

Four features of the US market shape what retention means and how a coaching call has to work.

**A small, registered market.** Retail forex in the US needs a regulated counterparty. Through the CFTC, that is a futures commission merchant or a retail foreign exchange dealer registered with the CFTC, a member of the National Futures Association, with at least $20 million in adjusted net capital. At 30 September 2026, six such firms reported $470.5 million owed to their retail forex customers: four registered retail foreign exchange dealers and two futures commission merchants without that registration. CFD-style products are not lawfully offered to US retail traders.

**The outcome is already published.** Every US retail forex dealer must disclose, for each of the last four calendar quarters, the percentage of its non-discretionary retail forex accounts that were profitable and the percentage that were not. The figures sit in the risk disclosure a client acknowledges before the account opens, and NFA rules require them on the dealer's website. In the year to the first quarter of 2022, about one-third of customers at registered US forex dealers made a profit and two-thirds lost money (CFTC, August 2022).

**An AI voice call is a regulated call.** The FCC confirmed in February 2024 that the TCPA's rules on artificial or prerecorded voice calls cover AI-generated voices (Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17). A call like that to a client's mobile needs the client's prior express consent, and prior express written consent if it includes an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing. Discentra calls only clients who have signed the consent form your firm collects, which covers coaching calls, texts and recording, not advertising or telemarketing. Your counsel decides which consent standard applies to your programme.

**How a pilot is judged.** A Discentra pilot is judged on whether fewer warning signs are followed by a new trade within 30 minutes. More trading or deposits never count as success, and the call never invites a trade or a deposit, never promotes anything, and never says that coached clients do better.

## Where do the warning signs show up in a forex book?

Discentra runs the same six rules for every client. In a US forex book they read like this.

- **Revenge re-entry.** A loss, then a new position in the same currency pair within 60 seconds at a larger size: a coaching call within 5 seconds of the sign. NFA forex dealers may not carry offsetting positions in a customer account (NFA Compliance Rule 2-43(b)); on our reading, a re-entry there is a new position, not a hedge against an open one.
- **Rapid-fire trading.** Five or more new trades within 15 minutes: a call. A warning sign opens a 30-minute episode with one call decision.
- **Loss streak.** Five losing closes in a row inside the trading day you define, with break-even trades skipped: a call.
- **Size above your limit.** A trade larger than the limit you set for that pair: a text, then a call if the client opens another trade within 10 minutes. The limit is a coaching threshold you choose, separate from the minimum security deposits (margin) US rules set (2% of a trade's value on major pairs, 5% on all others).
- **Daily loss.** A text when the day's closed losses reach 80% of the daily figure you declare for each client in the coached group; reaching it is a warning sign, with a call if trading continues.
- **Winning run.** Five winning closes in a row: a short text, nothing more.

## Consent, scripts and records

These four points cover who has agreed to a call, how it starts, and what it records.

**Written consent first.** A client joins the coached group only after consenting in writing to calls, texts and recording, and can withdraw at any time.

**The first call says what it is.** Every call opens by naming your firm and saying it is an AI coach, powered by Discentra, that does not give financial advice. The first call adds that the voice is AI-generated and that the call is recorded.

**Scripts reviewed, calls recorded.** Before launch, your compliance team can review the standard call scripts. We encrypt our copy of each recording and keep it 90 days by default, or longer, up to seven years, when you tell us in writing that a record-keeping rule requires it.

**Distress stops the coaching.** If a call shows distress, coaching stops. A client in the US is given the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988, free and open 24/7), and your named crisis contact is alerted.

## How would you know it is working?

Start with your own history. The first step we offer is a $2,000 Behavioural Diagnostic on a group of your clients: how often these warning signs showed up, what those clients did next, and whether they left sooner. We agree the group and the time period with you first.

Then a 90-day pilot on 50 to 150 clients, judged on whether fewer warning signs are followed by a new trade within 30 minutes. Retention is reported alongside, and more trading or deposits never count as success. Pilot and tier prices are on the [brokers page](https://discentra.ai/brokers).

## Sources and notes

Each figure on this page is labelled with what kind of evidence it is. Regulatory facts come from the regulator's own site or the legal text.

- **Who may deal retail forex (US law):** Commodity Exchange Act section 2(c)(2)(B) (7 U.S.C. 2(c)(2)(B)), with CFTC Regulations 5.7, 5.22 and 170.15 for the $20 million capital floor and NFA membership. https://uscode.house.gov/us/usc/t7/s2/
- **Registered firms and customer funds (regulator data, our count):** CFTC, Financial Data for FCMs, September 2026 (as of 30 September 2026): six registrants with a non-zero "Total Amount of Retail Forex Obligation", together $470,503,597. That is money owed to customers, adjusted for profit and loss, realised and open: not trading volume and not a count of clients. Banks or broker-dealers dealing under their own regulators would not appear in this file. Counted by Discentra from the CFTC workbook. https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/financialfcmdata/index.htm
- **Quarterly profitability disclosure (regulation):** CFTC Regulation 5.5(e) (17 CFR 5.5(e)) and 5.18(i) for the quarterly calculation; NFA Compliance Rule 2-36(n)(ix) for the website display; minimum security deposits from CFTC Regulation 5.9 and NFA Financial Requirements Section 12; offsetting positions from NFA Compliance Rule 2-43(b). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-17/chapter-I/part-5/section-5.5
- **Client outcomes (regulator-published):** CFTC customer advisory, *Eight Things You Should Know Before Trading Forex*, released 2 August 2022 with press release 8566-22. Based on the profitable and not-profitable non-discretionary account percentages disclosed by registered OTC forex dealers from Q2 2021 to Q1 2022: accounts, not people, and not refreshed since. https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/CustomerAdvisory_MustKnowForex.html
- **AI-generated voices (FCC):** FCC Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17, adopted 2 February 2024, released 8 February 2024, paragraph 2; 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(1)(iii) and (a)(2) for the two consent standards. We do not say which standard applies to any programme. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-17A1.pdf
- **Crisis line:** 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, free, confidential and open 24/7 across the United States. https://988lifeline.org/get-help/
- **How Discentra works (our own product):** The six rules, the 30-minute episode, the consent, disclosure and retention terms follow Discentra's client contract, data processing agreement and specification. The 5-second call is a target from trigger to a ringing phone and depends on the carrier.

## Frequently asked questions

**Who can offer forex on margin to retail customers in the US?** Under the Commodity Exchange Act, forex offered to US retail customers on margin must have a regulated counterparty. Through the CFTC, that means a futures commission merchant or a retail foreign exchange dealer registered with the CFTC, a member of the National Futures Association, with at least $20 million in adjusted net capital. Banks, securities broker-dealers and financial holding companies may offer it only under a rule of their own federal regulator. At 30 September 2026, six CFTC-registered firms reported $470.5 million owed to their retail forex customers. CFD-style products are not lawfully offered to US retail traders.

**Can a US forex broker use an AI voice to call its clients?** It starts with consent. The FCC confirmed in February 2024 (Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17) that the TCPA's rules on artificial or prerecorded voice calls cover AI-generated voices. Such a call to a mobile phone needs the called person's prior express consent, and prior express written consent if it includes an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing. Discentra calls only clients who have signed the consent form your firm collects, which covers coaching calls, texts and recording, not advertising or telemarketing; which consent standard applies to your programme is a question for your counsel. Coaching, not financial advice.

**Does Discentra's coaching call recommend trades to forex clients?** No. The call never suggests a currency pair, a direction, a size or a time to trade, never invites a trade or a deposit, never promotes anything, and never says that coached clients do better. Before launch, your compliance team can review the standard call scripts. Coaching, not financial advice.

**How long are Discentra's call recordings kept for a US broker?** We encrypt our copy of each recording and keep it for 90 days by default. If you tell us in writing that a record-keeping rule requires longer, we keep it for that period, up to seven years.

## Related links

- [Discentra for brokers: the pilot and pricing](https://discentra.ai/brokers)
- [Who owns retention at a brokerage?](https://discentra.ai/blog/who-owns-retention-at-a-brokerage)
- [Which way does your retention tool push?](https://discentra.ai/blog/which-way-does-your-retention-tool-push)
- [The disclosure gap: why the call should say it is an AI](https://discentra.ai/blog/the-disclosure-gap)
- [The coach that never sees the price](https://discentra.ai/blog/the-coach-that-never-sees-the-price)
- [Security and data handling](https://discentra.ai/security)
- [Get in touch](https://discentra.ai/get-in-touch)

---

This is a Markdown mirror of [https://discentra.ai/brokers/us-retail-forex](https://discentra.ai/brokers/us-retail-forex). Provided for LLM citation. © Discentra Ltd. Coaching, not financial advice.