Traders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region deposit over $1m in their accounts ten times as often as Europeans do.
That’s according to the latest statistics from Capital.com, which also noted that MENA traders close the highest percentage of successful trades across the broker’s client base.
In a white paper published alongside global strategic communications consultancy APCO, Capital.com revealed that its clients in the region were four times as likely to earn more than US$200k a year compared to Europe.
The paper, Trading’s New Horizon: How Access, Innovation and Ambition Are Fuelling MENA’s E-Trading Boom, also highlighted that MENA traders are highly active and embrace short-term trading strategies.
They close 71% of their positions intraday (vs. 41% in Europe), and their most-traded assets include gold, oil, natural gas, major equity indices and crypto.
Yet though they close more trades in profit at an average of 48.6%, compared with 43.8% in Europe, only half as many MENA traders end up with positive net profits as European traders. The authors of the paper attributed this to less use of risk-management tools.
“The Middle East is entering a defining moment in its financial evolution,” said Viktor Prokopenya, founder of Capital.com.
“Across the region, and particularly in the UAE, digital finance is unlocking unprecedented access to global markets, transforming how people trade, invest, and build wealth. This white paper captures that transformation in motion.”
Other interesting findings were that there are more university-educated MENA traders on the broker’s platform than their European peers, with 64% holding a degree against. 39% in Europe.
Nearly four fifths of the region’s traders are aged between 18 and 44, and millennials account for 55% of all active users. Nearly 45% of MENA traders begin with demo accounts, compared to 32% in Europe.
The paper drew on what Capital.com said was an 25% e-trading market share in the region, as well as two years of trading data from 62,850 verified MENA traders, who together executed 85.5 million trades,
Capital.com’s trading volume hit $1.5tn in the first half of the year, up 42.5% from the same period of 2024.
Growth was driven by the MENA activity, which saw trading volume rise 53.3% to US$804.1bn, with the UAE contributing US$576.5 billion, or 71.7%, of regional volume.
