LeapRate Retail FX Volume Index climbs 1% in October to $286B daily

Retail forex volumes remained strong in October despite institutional FX slowdown.

October was somewhat of a strange month in the forex world — at least as far as trading volumes go. While all major institutional FX ECN platforms — including Thomson Reuters, FXall, ICAP EBS (LON:IAP) and the CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) — reported declining volumes, retail forex dealers such as FXCM (NYSE:FXCM), Gain Capital (NYSE:GCAP), and Saxo Bank saw better-than-September figures.

Indeed, we saw worst-in-years volume figures from institutional players EBS and CME Group, at a time when retail forex brokers barely blinked.

So how does this all total up?

LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, increased overall by a modest 1% in October to average $286 billion daily, up slightly from $283 billion in September, but still the second lowest figure since last December and well below the record retail FX volumes of $329 billion daily seen back in June.

Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director, explained, “Usually, retail and institutional forex volume metrics move in lockstep. But not this October. It seems as though institutional traders kept their hands in their pockets as the US Government shutdown drama occupied the first half of the month.”

“But retail traders were not bothered at all by the drama in Washington, even enjoying some of the volatility that story injected into the markets.”

“One other issue of note in October was Japan. Japan retail FX volumes continued to shrivel, as Yen volatility waned and as Japanese retail trades turned their attention to the red hot Japanese stock market and equity trading.”

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 PagesForex 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.

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