2013 was a nice comeback year for retail forex volume metrics, up more than 20% over 2012.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, a monthly measure of trading volumes globally in the retail forex sector, declined by 5% in December to $276 billion daily — its (not unexpectedly) lowest level of the year.
Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director, commented “Forex volumes were seasonally slow during December across the board, expect for Japan which saw a reawakening of trading as volatility returned to Yen pair trading. Without Japan, we likely would have seen a closer-to-10% global decline.”
“But looking back, 2013 was a great year overall for retail forex brokers, marking a strong comeback in global forex trading volumes after two lackluster years. We set an all-time best for retail FX volumes in June at $329 billion daily — a mark we expect to be broken this year.”
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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 Pages, Forex 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.