CLS Group has reported its volumes and aggregation services statistics for the month of the April 2018. The growing volumes trend during the first couple months of the year has now firmly inverted, with April’s latest reading reflecting a multi-month decline across key metrics.
FX volumes during April were largely affected by the same factors as in March, i.e., range trading across major pairs. This trend has seen a collective decline across all major institutional venues, with CLS Group being no exception. Despite the pullback, however, CLS Group still managed to outperform its 2017 counterpart.
In terms of the latest statistics, the average daily traded volume submitted to CLS was down in again in April 2018. The official reading came in at $1.777 trillion, down by 4.2 percent month-over-month from $1.855 trillion in March 2018. Across a yearly timetable, the figure was pointed higher, albeit by a margin of 17.2 percent relative to April 2017’s reading of $1.516 trillion.
In April 2018, CLS reported its Swaps volumes at $1.238 trillion, retreating approximately 2.7 percent month-over-month from $1.272 trillion from March 2018. Once again, across a yearly timetable, the latest figures were seen to be climbing, reflecting a jump of 25.3 percent from $0.988 trillion in April 2017.
Looking at CLS’ spot FX volume, the group has reported a figure at $433.0 billion in April 2018, declining by 9.8 percent month-over-month from $480.0 billion in March 2018. Unlike its other segments, this figure was virtually unchanged from $435.0 billion set back in April 2017.
Finally, the monthly decline once again did not extend to CLS’ forwards business during April 2018. This segment yielded a positive figure of $106.0 billion, up 2.9 percent month-over-month from $103.0 billion in March 2018. The reading was also indicative of a 14.0 percent boost year-over-year from $93.0 billion in April 2017.
Looking ahead, Volatility appears to no longer be the primary culprit for subdued trading. Rather, with a healthy amount of activity across FX markets, the breakout of major trading pairs would likely kindle the resurgence of volumes in Q2 2018.
