Retail FX volumes heading back up, despite continued slowdown in Japan.
November was a month of recovery in the retail forex world. Most major retail FX brokers, such as FXCM, Gain Capital and Saxo Bank reported a nice if undramatic rise in volume metrics during the month. Most major Forex ECNs as well had a nice November — ICAP EBS, Thomson Reuters and FXall saw single digit % rises from October, although KCG Hotspot reported a modest 1% decline.
The general strength in forex volumes in most major markets, including the US and Europe, was offset somewhat by continued weakness in Japan. Japanese retail forex volumes are about half what they were earlier this year.
So how do the numbers look?
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, increased overall by 2% in November to average $291 billion daily, creeping back ever so slowly to the magic $300 B/day level which we last saw in July.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index is a monthly measure of global trading activity in the retail forex industry.
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Sources: LeapRate research, monthly and quarterly volume reports of various Forex ECNs and Forex brokerage firms.
The LeapRate Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, 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, FXall, ICAP-EBS, Hotspot FX) 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.
LeapRate is a leading research and information firm serving the global FX industry. Through its partnership with Dow Jones, LeapRate publishes the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report, a comprehensive review of the retail FX industry. Other LeapRate services include Best-of-the-Web FX Research and our daily FX Research email for traders, the Forex Yellow Pages, Forex Exec Search job listings, and our Approved List of regulated FX brokerage firms worldwide. For more information please see our website at www.leaprate.com.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.