Monex Group is the latest Japanese brokerage group to report its trading activity and aggregated volumes for the month ending March 2017. The latest figures constitute a retreat off recent highs, following a multi-year peak back in February. One of the primary culprits for this was the muted movement of the JPY, having been bound to a rather narrow trading range.
In March, Monex Group again saw its OTC FX accounts edge higher, this time setting a new high at 246,103 accounts. While this was a marginal increase on a monthly basis relative to 245,396 accounts in February 2018, accounts did rise by 4.6 percent on a year-over-year interval.
Active OTC FX accounts at Monex Group were basically unchanged in March 2018, holding steady at 64,188 accounts, losing just 14 accounts from February. Over 21 trading days in March 2018 (compared with 19 in February), the average trade value per business day in March 2018 saw a double-digit downturn.
This reading came in at 147.3 billion yen ($1.39 billion) during March 2018, down 14.3 percent month-over-month from 171.8 billion yen ($1.62 billion) in February 2018. Compared to its 2017 counterpart, this figure grew by a margin of 35.5 percent though.
Trading activity has been much improved so far in 2018, vastly outperforming 2017 counterparts. After exploding in January, markets took a slightly less active tone in March, despite a number of different factors helping drive overall Volatility .
TradeStation summary
In terms of TradeStation, Monex Inc. saw its DARTs pointed lower in March 2018, coinciding with a reading of 131,617. This related to a decline of 11.6 percent compared to 148,929 DARTs in February 2018. While lower, March 2018’s reading still reflects a sizable boost relative to last year.
In March 2017 TradeStation reported its DARTs at only 101,121, good for a 30.1 percent growth year-over-year. Volatility has picked up substantially in 2018 – last year was defined rather by episodic pockets of market activity that collectively saw lower volumes at brokerages throughout the year.
Looking at other figures at TradeStation, the group saw its number of active accounts inch higher also in March 2018. A new high of 74,810 accounts was reached in March, climbing 2.4 percent month-over-month from 73,024 accounts in February 2018.
Since last year, TradeStation has much more successful in procuring new business. This was reflective of its growth of 18.7 percent of active accounts, compared to March 2017.
New splash?
Monex Group already has a diverse portfolio of brokerages worldwide though was rumored to be making a big splash into cryptocurrency markets. Earlier this year, Monex set up its own unit, which is focused on cryptocurrencies, to study the opportunities in the sector. However, Monex's name is now being floated as a potential buyer of Coincheck, the Exchange that saw over $531 million of NEM hacked this year.
