Foreign exchange trading volumes rose to a record high in August across FXSpotStream LLC platforms, data showed on Wednesday, as a rise in Volatility encouraged more buying and selling of currencies.
During August 2019, FXSpotStream reported an average daily volume (ADV) of $43.2 billion, which represented a jump of 19 percent month-on-month from $36.2 billion reported back in July 2019. Across a yearly interval, the ADV metric in August 2019 reflected an advance of 53 percent from year-ago levels when weighed against $28.3 billion in August 2018.
The figure is a new all-time high, besting the previous record set back in June 2019 at $42.2 billion.
The numbers released by FXSpotStream, the aggregator service of LiquidityMatch and a major institutional platform in the FX market, follows a huge surge in trading at Japanese retail broker GMO Click, with its August volumes up to $860 billion to mark its best-ever month in two years.
Cboe FX, CLS, and Thomson Reuters to follow suite
The rise in FX volumes will be welcomed by both retail and professional platforms, including major exchanges, that have struggled with calm financial markets squeezing their profits in recent years.
Other institutional FX platforms including Cboe FX, CLS, and Thomson Reuters are also expected to report a big rise in volumes of last month as volatility picked up and the secular trend of rising FX volumes comes into play again.
August 2019 saw a total of 22 trading days, compared to 23 days in the month prior. In terms of total volumes at FXSpotStream, August 2019 showed $951 billion, also representing a new record for the platform and was higher by over 11 percent from the previous record set back in June at $845 billion.
FXSpotStream’s offering is a client-to-bank platform, with each Liquidity taker required to create individual credit relationships with participating banks. This differs from other multi-dealer platforms such as FX ECNs like Hotspot and EBS Markets that operate with centralized order book systems for their participants.
