Seventy-Four Per Cent Lose MoneyThin moat

XTB (XTB) — moat facet

The only company here legally required to publish the proportion of customers who end up worse off for having been customers.

At the top of xtb.com sits a sentence the company did not choose to write: "74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider." Beside it: "CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage." European rules require the figure, updated, in the firm's own marketing.1

Retail accounts trading CFDs with XTBLose money — 74%Do not — 26%The figure XTB is required by European rules to print in its own marketing
The only company here that must publish how many customers end up worse off.

It is worth sitting with how strange that is. No other company in this collection is required to publish the proportion of its customers who end up worse off for having been customers, and to do it in the same font as the offer. The disclosure exists because the regulator concluded that the product's economics are not obvious to the people buying it.

For XTB the figure is doing two contradictory jobs. It is a warning that suppresses conversion, and it is a description of the revenue. The 2 035 million złoty of gross gain on contracts for difference in 2025 is, arithmetically, the other side of what those accounts did.2

It is also, in its way, a competitive fact, because every European broker offering the same product has to publish its own version of it. If XTB's number were materially better than the field's, the strongest marketing claim available to this company would be the risk warning, and it would not be printed in the smallest permitted font.

The disclosure is recalculated periodically and must be printed. A drift toward the eighties would appear on the homepage, in front of every prospective client, at the moment of decision.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

The disclosed loss rate sits where the rest of the European industry's does, which says the outcome is a property of leveraged retail trading rather than of any one broker. It is republished periodically and has not moved enough to notice.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Disclosed retail loss rate
74% of accounts, printed on xtb.com by law

European rules require XTB to publish, in its own marketing, the proportion of retail accounts that lose money trading contracts for difference with it. The figure on xtb.com is 74 per cent, beside the statement that contracts for difference are complex instruments carrying a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. It is simultaneously a warning that suppresses conversion and a description of where 2 035 million złoty of gross gain came from.

Source: XTB mandatory risk disclosure, xtb.com ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
A Business Model That Has to Be Disclosed
A mandatory warning is evidence, and it accumulates in front of the people who write the next rule.
References
  1. ReportedAt the top of xtb.com sits a sentence the company did not choose to write: "74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider." Beside it: "CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage." European rules require the figure, updated, in the firm's own marketing.
    XTB mandatory risk disclosure on xtb.com - "74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider." and "CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage." — September 2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedThe 2 035 million złoty of gross gain on contracts for difference in 2025 is, arithmetically, the other side of what those accounts did.
    XTB Group consolidated financial statements for 2025, comprehensive income statement and revenue notes - total operating income 2 146 056 against 1 873 436; income from fees and charges 20 287 against 12 291; other income 3 198; marketing (584 898) against (344 808); salaries and employee benefits (413 019) against (311 574); commission expenses (107 415) against (97 289); other external services (132 846) against (79 226); amortisation and depreciation (25 405) against (19 905); taxes and fees (15 955) against (13 109); costs of maintenance and lease of buildings (10 559) against (7 999); other costs (23 580) against (12 791); total operating expenses (1 313 677) against (886 701); profit on operating activities 832 379 against 986 735; finance income 39 603 against 62 845 including interest income on financial instruments at amortized cost 26 538 and income on bonds 12 744 against 26 138 and foreign exchange gains of nil against 10 307; finance costs (94 594) against (1 129), of which foreign exchange losses (93 125) against nil, relating to unrealised differences on the measurement of balance sheet items denominated in a currency other than the functional currency; profit before tax 777 388 against 1 048 451; income tax (133 189) against (191 595); net profit 644 199 against 856 856; basic earnings per share 5,48 against 7,29. Result of operations in financial instruments by class for 2025 and 2024: Commodity CFDs 923 714 and 896 672; Index CFDs 760 736 and 622 728; Currency CFDs 290 408 and 272 276; Stock and ETP CFDs 60 047 and 44 762; Bond CFDs 101 and 735; total CFDs 2 035 006 and 1 837 173; Stocks and ETPs 78 310 and 30 654; gross gain on transactions in financial instruments 2 113 316 and 1 867 827; bonuses and discounts paid to customers (17 328) and (12 629); commission paid to cooperating brokers (51 406) and (54 623); net gain on transactions in financial instruments 2 044 582 and 1 800 575; interest income on client funds 140 129 and interest paid to clients (62 140), giving net interest income of 77 989 and 58 989 — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026