However volume decrease was less than usual “December effect” drop.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, was down 5% in December to $170 billion per day. However December volumes are usually significantly slower — down typically 15-20% from a regular month — due to the annual holiday season, so the 5% drop makes December 2012 a decent month volume-wise. Indeed, volumes were about 9% above December last year.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index is a monthly measure of global trading activity in the retail FX sector.
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Sources: LeapRate research, monthly and quarterly volume reports of various Forex ECNs and Forex brokerage firms.
Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director commented, “December saw a (relatively) nice comeback in FX volumes, particularly in Japan after the new Japanese government made it clear it was going to be quite activist in reducing the value of the Yen. The spillover effect into other currency pairs as well brought back some volatility to the currency markets. Unfortunately, this all happened during December, a time when less people pay attention to the markets.”
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.