GMO Click volume metrics finally cool off after a record run-up in volumes so far in 2013.

After breaking the $1 trillion per month barrier several months running, leading Japanese retail forex broker GMO Click finally saw the summer slowdown in trading take some wind out of its sails. Volumes at GMO Click dropped 27% in August to total $788 billion (¥79 trillion).

In the ‘big picture’, GMO Click is still being viewed as doing very well — by comparison with last year, last August its volumes were just $225 billion.

The slowdown can be attributed, as we wrote above, to the typical August summer slowdown in trading volumes, but not only. After half a year of volatility following the election of new Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at the end of last year, August saw very little volatility in the Yen, with the USDJPY pair trading in a fairly tight 97-99 range for most of the month.

Is this indicative of an industry-wide August slowdown? If so, will other brokers see as drastic a decline as did GMO Click? We should learn more as other retail forex brokers and forex ECNs report their August volumes in the coming days. Stay tuned to LeapRate….

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.