Gaitame Sees Weakest Transaction Volumes Since 2017 in February

Gaitame, a Japanese foreign exchange (forex) broking giant, has published its trading metrics for the second month of 2019. Despite a surge in trading volumes in January, February appears to have resorted back to the weaker results which plagued the company for the last two months of 2018

During the month of February, the number of accounts opened was 2,828 accounts, bringing the total to 482,866 by the end of the month. As a percentage, this is a slight increase of 0.6 percent when compared to the previous month.

To compare, the number of accounts opened in January on the broker was 3,291 to reach 480,038. This, in turn, is 0.7 percent higher than the number of accounts opened by the end of December.

Gaitame Records Weakest Transaction Volumes since December 2017

Despite an increase in accounts on the Japanese broker, transaction volumes achieved during the month of February was ¥145.7 billion ($1.3 billion). Not only was this considerably less than January’s result, which was ¥272.2 billion by 46.5 percent, it is also the lowest transaction volume reported in more than a year, with the next lowest in December of 2017.

February’s figure is at odds with the previous month, as January’s transaction volume was 62.9 percent higher than that achieved in December of 2018, which was ¥167.1 billion. It is also the highest transaction volume Gaitame has recorded since February of 2016.

On a yearly comparison, the transaction volume executed in February of 2019 is also at adds, as February of 2018 achieved the strongest result for the whole of 2018, at ¥255.8 billion. As a percentage, this translates to a drop of 43 percent year-on-year.

Although transaction volumes fell in February, the deposit amount did manage to increase ever so slightly from the previous month by 0.4 percent. Specifically, the deposit amount was ¥109.95 billion, up from ¥109.5 billion in January.