Following a fairly long slump in trading volumes during most of 2014, LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index leapt 18% in September to $340 billion ADV – second best ever, just slightly below June 2013’s record $341 billion.
September also marks our Index’s return to above $300B ADV for the first time since March.
Several leading retail and institutional Forex trading platforms reported best-ever (or best-in-a-long-time) volume metrics for September such as:
- FXCM (first time above $400B monthly retail volumes)
- EXNESS (record $191B)
- KCG Hotspot (record $38.2B ADV)
- Saxo Bank (volumes up 51%)
Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director, commented:
September brought great relief to retail and institutional forex brokers alike. And it was the time-tried rule taking effect:
Volatility = Volumes
FX trading volumes had been in a funk all year long in both the retail and institutional worlds. September’s perfect volatility storm of ECB action, the Scotland referendum, a generally rising dollar and falling commodity prices brought many traders back to the table.
Sources: LeapRate research, monthly and quarterly volume reports of various Forex ECNs and Forex brokerage firms.
The LeapRate Retail FX Volume Index is a monthly measure of activity, stated in billions of dollars per day. It is calculated using proprietary formulas developed by LeapRate. The data input into the model are based on examining monthly and/or quarterly activity levels put out by various retail FX brokerage firms; similar activity levels announced by other FX aggregators such as Forex ECNs (e.g. Thomson Reuters, ICAP-EBS, KCG Hotspot) and FX settlement firms (e.g. CLS Group); as well as anecdotal evidence we encounter as part of our general research activities in the Forex sector.
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