CLS Group, which is a forex market settlement provider, published some of its metrics for April 2022. The platform witnessed a fall in FX trading demand in the month from the previous month’s peak.
The total average daily traded volume (ADV) on the platform for last month came in at $1.859 trillion. It was more than a 12.5 percent decline from March 2022 but strengthened by 5 percent year-over-year.
The figures are based on executed trade volumes submitted to CLS.
The latest figure came after one of the best months in CLS’ operational history. It reported an ADV of $2.125 trillion in March, and that was a surge of 7 percent both on a year-over-year and month-on-month basis.
An Industry-Wide Slowdown
CLS categorizes its forex market offerings into three primary instruments: forward, swap and spot. It witnessed a monthly ADV drop in all segments.
Forex swap, which is the most traded instrument in terms of absolute volume, brought in $1.269 trillion in ADV in April. It came in almost flat when compared with the previous year, but it was down by almost 12.5 percent from the previous month.
The ADV for FX spot instruments came in at $475 billion, whereas it was $115 billion for forex forwards. Both saw a monthly decline of 13.6 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. FX forwards trading strengthened significantly by 26.4 percent from the previous year, but the yearly rise of FX spot demand is 14 percent.
Meanwhile, CLS is not the only company in the FX trading space to report a slowdown in monthly demand in April. Both institutional and retail platforms have already published their trading metrics, showing a significant correction in demand. Furthermore, it is cyclical after a peak in the trading demand in the first quarter of every year.
