NY Fed Semi Annual Volume Survey shows some interesting data

The Foreign Exchange Committee launched its inaugural Survey of North American Foreign Exchange Volume in October 2004 in order to provide the market with frequent information on the size and structure of foreign exchange activity in North America.

Below are the results of the October 2009 semi annual survey.

While the bottom line isn't surprising as the survey was conducted while the crisis was pretty much still at large there are some interesting results we can see there. In general, the Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term trading volume was down 10% and by as much as 20% in certain segments. But what's amazing to see is that the swap transactions were actually up by more than 10% and represented the only segment of the market which didn't plummet. You can also see that OTC Forex Options represent less than 4% of the total traded volume. This confirms what I've been saying all along - options and binaries are a tiny segment of the Forex market, at least for now.