FFAJ Reports Drop in FX Trading Volumes in Q1

The Financial Futures Authority of Japan (FFAJ) today released its Q1 2017 report on financial futures transactions which includes trading volume data on retail FX and over the counter (OTC) contracts. The period of the report is from April to June 2017.

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Total trading volumes on-Exchange fell by 9.21 percent to 15.8 million contracts against 17.4 million contracts in the January - March quarter. Overall, on-exchange, domestic trading volume recorded a sharp decline of 16.44 percent and overseas volume gained marginally by 1.14 percent, corresponding to the January to March 2017 quarter.

Fomestic OTC volumes generated a total contract value of ¥10.30 trillion ( $93.15 billion) in Q1 2017, a fall of 21.15 percent against the previous quarter which saw ¥13.06 trillion ($118.14 billion). This figure includes margin FX data, which also declined by 21.3 percent to ¥10.24 trillion ( $92.55 billion) against the previous quarter.

Under trading volume by instruments, domestic interest rate (futures) contracts were 30.60 percent less compared to the previous term. Overseas interest rate (futures) contracts and overseas interest rate (option) transactions were 1.01 percent and 3.38 percent higher respectively. Domestic OTC FX option contracts volume increased by 17.14 percent and FX futures contract volume shrunk by 21.3 percent to ¥10.2 trillion ($92.6 billion) compared to the previous term.

Regarding open interest data, the on-exchange open interest position increased 8.91 percent to 6.9 million contracts with a maximum increase in the overseas contract of 16.84 percent compared to the previous quarter. The domestic OTC transaction open position increased marginally by 0.29 percent.

Earlier this month the FFAJ released its July report regarding binary options trading volumes and retail FX trading volumes, in which it reported a decrease in trading volumes due to low Volatility across the industry.