Institutional forex trading activities have picked up again in January as volumes rebounded from December's lows. Data from Cboe FX and Deutsche Börse's 360T, two of the largest institutional spot FX trading venues, have confirmed this market trend.

Monthly Trading Volume Uptick on Cboe FX

According to the official figures of Cboe FX, the platform handled more than $901 billion in trading volume in January compared to $773 billion in December, a month-over-month uptick of 16.5 percent. The average daily volume (ADV) on the platform came in at almost $41 billion, jumping from $35.1 billion in December.

When compared year-over-year, the upward drag of the institutional demand for FX is more significant. In January 2022, the American spot FX trading platform handled $767.7 billion in trading volume, putting the year-over-year uptick at 17.4 percent. The ADV also increased by 12.3 percent. January 2023 had 22 trading days, similar to its predeceasing month, but January 2022 had 21 trading days.

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FX Volumes Outside the US

A similar trend can be seen on 360T, a major spot FX venue in Europe. It reported a total monthly trading volume of $545 billion compared to $490 billion in December 2022 and $476 billion in January 2022. The monthly uptick in trading volume was 4.4 percent, and yearly 7.5 percent.

However, the demand for FX futures in Japan defied the spot market trend in the US and Europe. In January, Click 365, owned by Tokyo Financial Exchange, witnessed a month-over-month FX daily futures trading volume decline of 11.9 percent. A total of 2,667,312 FX daily futures contracts changed hands on the platform last month, which is 39.7 percent higher than in January 2022. The demand for US dollars remained the highest on the platform, followed by the Mexican pesos, Australian dollars, South African rands, and British pounds.