iFOREX’s July Trading Income Fell to $720,000 From…

iFOREX has cut its 2026 profit outlook after reporting a 76.8% year-over-year fall in July trading income to approximately $720,000, from $3.1 million a year earlier. The London-listed CFD broker blamed coordinated yen intervention by Japan's Ministry of Finance and the US Treasury on July 30 and 31, saying the resulting sharp appreciation of the yen moved against its net client exposure.

The company now expects full-year adjusted EBITDA of just $0.5 million to $2.5 million, compared with the roughly $2.4 million of adjusted EBITDA it expects to report for the first half alone. Shares closed down 21.6% at 145 pence in London on Wednesday, well below the 195 pence IPO price from its February 25 Main Market listing.

Yen intervention exposes residual book

iFOREX said the principal driver of July's weak trading income was the yen event. The company noted that Japanese customers fund their accounts in yen, so subsequent yen weakness reduces the dollar value of income generated from those clients. It has previously disclosed that it matches clients' long and short positions and internally manages the residual exposure rather than hedging all client risk externally. That leaves the broker exposed when a sudden volatility event moves sharply against the remaining book.

The warning did not come with deteriorating customer acquisition. New customers increased 40% year over year in July, while total deposits rose 8%. That extends the first-half pattern, when new-client onboarding rose 19% and active clients increased 8%. The problem is monetisation: average revenue per user had already fallen 9% year over year during the first half.

August has not provided a rebound. Management said trading has been unusually subdued, with very low trading income against a backdrop of low market volatility. Net cash stood at approximately $10 million on August 17, including about $4 million ringfenced for regulatory purposes, down from roughly $12 million at June 30.

CEO Itai Sadeh said the company was disappointed to issue the update so soon after its H1 statement. That earlier July statement had warned that a stronger Israeli shekel was raising the dollar value of operating costs but had not provided a numerical full-year EBITDA range. iFOREX is scheduled to publish interim results on September 24.