Increased volatility brought traders back in November, but just marginally.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, was fairly flat in November, with global retail FX trading activity up 1% to $179 billion per day. However this marks the fifth consecutive month where volumes remained well below last year’s levels, with the year-over-year declines in the 10%-15% range.
LeapRate’s Retail FX Volume Index is a monthly measure of global trading activity in the retail FX sector.
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Sources: LeapRate research, monthly and quarterly volume reports of various Forex ECNs and Forex brokerage firms.
Gerald Segal, LeapRate Managing Director commented, “November was a fairly quiet month, despite increased volatility in the currency and equity markets. The “risk-off trade” immediately after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, followed by an end-of-month risk-on trade, sent the EURUSD and other benchmark currency pairs and equity indices on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. We expected that increased volatility to bring investors back to the trading table — and it did, but only slightly. Both institutional and retail investors traded more in November, but marginally so.”
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.