LeapRate Retail FX Volume Index dips 1% in September

Retail forex volumes globally drop to $283 billion daily.

It seems as though the retail forex world has been a little bit late in exiting the usual summer slowdown in trading volumes…. LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, decreased by 1% in September to average $283 billion daily, down from $285 billion in August.

The $283 billion daily figure makes September the slowest month for retail FX volumes since late last year (December’s $227 billion).

Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director, commented, “Not much changed in September from August. But that is news in itself. The summer months of 2013 were understandably slower volume-wise than a very hot first six months of the year, with retail FX volumes soaring to a record $329 billion daily in June.”

“However, muted volatility led many traders to stay on the sidelines in September as well. That, combined with especially lower volume levels in Japan, led to a ho-hum volume result in September. Among the major forex brokers we track, only Gain Capital had an up September.”

The good news? We understand that October is shaping up to be a lot better fore retail forex brokers. Commodity prices have bounced around in October. The pivotal EURUSD pair has broken out to top 1.38 near month end. And one-time events such as Twitter’s upcoming IPO, which can already be traded in the Twitter greymarket, have brought retail traders back to their screens.

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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