After recovering from holiday lows in January, institutional forex trading activities slowed down in February 2023, data from Cboe FX and Deutsche Börse's 360T show.

According to figures from Cboe FX, the American spot FX trading platform handled a total trading volume of $837.9 billion. The February volume is a 7% decrease from the $901.9 billion reported in January.

On the contrary, the average daily volume (ADV) of spot FX on Cboe FX rose by 2.2% to approximately $42 billion, which is up from approximately $41 billion last month. However, this ADV was generated within 20 trading days as opposed to 22 trading days marked in January 2023.

In January, total spot FX volume on Cboe FX had shot up 16.5% from the holiday low of $773 billion posted in December 2022 to $901.9 billion, with the ADV jumping by the same measure to reach approximately $41 billion during the first month of the new year.

At 360T, one of Europe’s biggest institutional FX trading platforms, daily spot volumes added up to $530.9 billion at the end of February, which is a 3% decrease from $545 billion generated in January. The total trading volume traded on this platform stood at $490 billion in December 2022.

Similar results were posted in Japan as the demand for Click 365, the world's first exchange-listed FX daily futures contracts launched by the Tokyo Financial Exchange in 2005, slumped 11.1% month-over-month to approximately 2.4 million with an average daily volume of over 118,000.

How Did Spot FX Perform YoY in February 2023?

Although institutional spot FX trading venues reported decreases month-over-month in February 2023, a mixed performance pattern emerges when compared to the same period in 2022.

On Cboe FX, total trading and average daily volumes both decreased marginally (by 0.3%) in February 2023 when compared to the total spot volume generated during the same month last year. These volumes came in at $840 billion and $42 billion, respectively, in 2022.

On the contrary, 360T reported a better spot forex performance last month when compared to the same period last year. Total daily spot volumes traded in February 2022 adds up to $508 billion, which is opposite to $530.9 billion last month. In the same vein, Click 365 boasts of a better output in February this year as total trading volumes of its FX daily futures contracts shot up 15.9% year-over-year.