Monex's FX Volumes Pointed Lower in December

Monex Group is the latest Japanese brokerage group to report its latest trading activity and aggregated volumes for the month ending December 2017. After a strong November, the group’s volumes retreated to close out 2017, continuing an uneven Q4.

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The group’s global DARTs managed to score a 2017 high last month – heading into December however, Monex’s volumes were markedly lower. The volumes were on par with other Japanese exchanges, though the decline in its reading was not as pronounced as GMO Click's. In terms of other venues in December, Monex was consistent with a general industry consolidation of retail volumes.

Several factors helped explain a subdued trading month for Monex, the most obvious being the static movement of the USD/JPY, which helped erode trading activity. Additionally, a lack of Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad Read this Term or market drivers was also an influence, as well as a lightened trading schedule in the Western world, which slowed down global markets.

In December 2017, Monex saw its global Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) reported at 267,264, falling by a factor of 10.8 percent month-over-month from 299,530 DARTs set back in November 2017.

Relative to the year prior, the latest reading in November was unchanged on a yearly basis from 269,289 DARTs in December 2016 – of note, December 2017 featured a total of 21 trading days compared to just 20 in November 2017 and 21 in December 2016.

Moreover, Monex Group’s total active accounts fell for the first time all year, retreating off a recent high last month to 1,039,370 in December 2017. The decline however was marginal, which was less than -1.0 percent month-over-month from 1,040,506 active accounts in November 2017.

In terms of FX, Monex Inc. saw its average daily trade value plunge to $969.7 million per day (¥109.2 billion) in December 2017, down 25.1 percent month-over-month from $1.29 billion per day (¥145.9 billion) in November 2017. DARTs also registered a monthly decline en route to a reading of 175,329 in December 2017, compared with 200,463 DARTs (2017 high) in November 2017, or 12.5 percent lower month-over-month.

This trend also extended to TradeStation’s DARTs, which managed to pare most of last month’s gains. As such, December 2017 saw just 92,927 DARTs, which corresponded to a drop of 6.8 percent month-over-month from 99,697 DARTs in the month prior.