UK broker FXCM has released its monthly trading volume report for May. The firm saw a significant increase in its total trading volume for the month despite the number of active accounts remaining roughly the same.

In April of this year, FXCM racked up a total trading volume of $184 billion. This represented the lowest trading volume of the year so far in monthly terms. As such, the firm will be pleased that its total trading volume increased to $212 billion - a 15 percent month on month increase.

Having said this, when one takes into account the number of trading days, this growth is not as spectacular as it sounds. There were 21 trading days in April and 23 in May. This means that there was approximately 8.7 percent more trading time in May than in April.

As such, if April would have had the same number of trading days as May, then growth would have likely only been approximately 6 percent. This can be seen in the change in average daily trading volume. In April this was equivalent to $9.2 billion a day - a less than 6 percent increase on April’s average of $8.7 billion.

Increased spending

Growth in total trading volume did not correlate with an increase in the number of client trades. These grew from an average of 340,354 per day in April to 347,138 in May - a 2 percent increase.

Given the knowledgeable readership we have here at Finance Magnates, I’m sure you can tell that this means clients traded more cash per individual trade in April than they did in May. Indeed, clients traded roughly $26,502.43 per trade in May - a 3.7 percent increase on April when customers traded approximately $25,561.62 per trade.