Foreign exchange Volatility has been declining across the board in March, as the short bursts that we have been seeing throughout 2015 return to dominate the market. In March the most active days have been focused on the two key events of the month - the ECB’s and the Federal Reserve’s rates decisions. The 10th and the 17th of March have been the most active trading days for foreign exchange.
Looking at the electronic communications networks (ECNs) that are reporting daily numbers, starting from this months we are focusing on the trading volumes of BATS owned Hotspot, FastMatch, which is partially owned by FXCM and GAIN Capital’s GTX electronic communications networks. The figures from the latter also include trading volumes transacted through GAIN Capital’s swap Execution facility (SEF).
Starting from the largest of the aforementioned ECNs, during the month of March, trading volumes at Hotspot declined by 14 per cent when compared to February, totaling 586.6 billion. The average daily volume (ADV) figure totaled 25.5 billion, which is a decline of 21 per cent when compared to the previous month.
The numbers are also lower year-on-year, reflecting seasonal factors, with the Easter holidays which substantially decrease trading activity, falling in April 2015.
Looking at FastMatch, the decline in trading volumes was much more modest when compared to Hotspot - the company reported what was basically a flat month with $232.5 billion transacted through the ECN, when compared to $233.7 in February. The figures are much higher than a year ago, when the company was hit by the affiliation of its parent FXCM to the Swiss National Bank induced crisis.
Delving into specifics, FastMatch registered year-on-year growth totaling about 29 per cent, while the average daily volumes numbers were impacted by the holiday more substantially - falling 9 per cent when compared to last month and rising almost 19 per cent when compared to last year.
GAIN Capital’s GTX is the newest addition to the list of companies which are announcing trading volumes on a daily basis. The U.S. brokerage’s ECN and SEF have registered a total of about $168 billion in March, which is actually an increase when compared to last month’s figure of $158 billion. The ADV figure is $7.2 billion, which is lower by 13 per cent when compared to February.
Looking at the total volumes at GTX, which include the swap dealing facility of the company, volumes have increased to $233 billion, which is an 8 percent increase when compared to February. The total ADV number for GAIN Capital’s GTX is $10 billion in March, which is lower by about 11 per cent.
