The bad news? May, like the three months before it, was not very strong for the Retail Forex industry.
The good news? It looks like June will show a nice upward reversal.
In what is turning out to be a very up-and-down year volume-wise (although mostly down, so far, see graph below), Retail Forex brokers saw another down month in May 2014. LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index fell in May by 1% to $279 billion ADV, making May 2014 the slowest (non-December) month since 2012.
Several leading Retail Forex brokers, such as FXCM (+3%) and Gain Capital (+8%) did see a slight volume recovery in May. However the overall trend was still (slightly) lower, with declines seen at EXNESS (-3%), Alpari Russia (-13%), and at GMO Click (-12%).
Institutional brokers also saw mixed results, with ICAP’s EBS (+7%) and KCG’s Hotspot FX (+3%) offset by FXall (-4%) and Thomson Reuters Matching (-3%).
Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director, commented “April’s showers may not have brought May flowers in the FX space. But we believe that June will be a strong month, with indications already been seen in several corners that the return to volatility (at least somewhat) among key currency pairs has brought tired traders back to their screens.”
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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 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, 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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