Exchange-based FX trading in Japan has heralded some remarkable results in January this year, borne out by today’s announcement of trading volumes for Click365 margin FX contracts on Tokyo Financial Exchange for the month.
January 2015 is likely to be remembered industry-wide as the month which changed the entire landscape of the global FX industry, due to the Swiss National Bank’s removal of the 1.20 peg on the Swiss franc.
During that particular month, the total trading volume of Click365 exchange-traded FX Margin contracts was 3,615,678 which is a decrease of 9.6% compared with December 2014, but 13.1% higher than January last year.
Average daily trading volume was 172,176, which is down slightly from December’s 173,894.
The remarkable detail within the volume figures for Click365 FX contracts is that although the overall combined trading volume shows a reduction from that of December, Swiss franc trading volume increased exponentially, with a stratospheric 1207.2% increase in volumes on the CHF/JPY pair compared with December 2014, and a 635% increment over January last year.
This is clear testimony that the sharp increase in the value of the Swiss franc against a multitude of other currencies attracted the attention of Japan’s traders, and indeed contrary to being exposed to negative client balances due to open CHF trades as was the case with a great many FX brokerages and venues across the world, Japanese industry participants traded the Swiss currency against the domestic tender at a very high rate.
Euroyen futures trading activity soared by 93.3% in January compared to the previous month, showing that volatility stoked the Japanese market considerably last month.
For the official announcement from Tokyo Financial Exchange, click here.