We probably won’t have a month like September again for a while, with saw both institutional and retail FX volumes up 25-35% across the board. But based on preliminary data from the first 2+ weeks, it looks like October is shaping up to be another strong month of FX trading.
October has not seen the wild volatility swings in the currency markets which September did – the EURUSD has basically stayed in the 1.26-1.27 range all month so far. But the up-and-down equity market (mostly down) has maintained the interest of online retail traders, and as such many retail FX brokers are pushing their CFD and index offerings.
From among those who report daily data, we see KCG’s Hotspot FX report that first-half October FX volumes averaged $36.2 billion daily – down about 5% from September‘s $38.2 billion, but still very strong as compared to the last year of trading. If volumes hold up in the second half of the month, October will be Hotspot’s third best month ever.
