EBS Forex Volumes Leap Amid US Election Volatility in November

Leading interdealer broker ICAP Plc, soon to be named NEX Group Plc, has reported trading volumes on its electronic foreign exchange (FX) platform EBS for November 2016. The metrics showed a strong performance in the group’s leveraged foreign exchange (FX) trading volumes as markets reacted to considerable Volatility set off by the U.S. presidential elections last month.

To unlock the Asian market, register now to the iFX EXPO in Hong Kong

More specifically, ICAP’s EBS currency-Trading Platform handled $114.6 billion daily in November 2016, constituting a jump of 37.0 percent MoM from just $83.8 billion in October 2016. The latest figures also dashed what had been a relatively narrow range of consolidation across EBS’s volumes over the past few months, which have stayed around the $80.0 billion threshold.

Expanding the scope to encompass a yearly timeframe, EBS’s November 2016 volumes of $114.6 billion are also higher by 52 percentage YoY from $75.5 billion in November 2015. This strong performance in November has been shared by other institutional venues as a whole and has thus far not been specific to one exchange. It will be worth noting if this trend is snapped with the US election event now behind or volumes will manage to resume the ascending trend off their yearly lows printed earlier in August, as was the case at EBS.

ICAP’s US Treasury activity during November 2016 had a similar narrative, given a strong rebound of nearly 35 percent MoM in average daily volumes. During November 2016, US Treasury activity volumes came in at $213.8 billion, up from $158.1 billion in October 2016. Across a yearly interval, November’s volumes reflect a 46.0 percent advance from $146.1 billion in November 2015.

In terms of US repo rates, volumes were up 4 percent year on year to an average of $240.1 million and up 2 percent on a monthly basis, while European repo volumes were also higher 15 percent on 2015 and up 4 percent relative to October 2016.

Earlier in November, Finance Magnates reported about ICAP when the London-based firm’s electronic foreign exchange platform saw a huge $240 billion in trading volumes, as the first signs of Donald Trump’s victory emerged. The figure was more than two and a half times more than the norm. Over the last 12 months, trades over the EBS platform averaged $90 billion each day.

To unlock the Asian market, register now to the iFX EXPO in Hong Kong