FX Volumes Drop Away in April

The first group of three FX platforms to report volumes for April signal a quieter month from March, but, generally, a slightly busier year-on-year market. Into the bargain, assuming their data was translated into the local FX committee semi-annual turnover surveys, due for release in July, spot volumes are likely to be broadly unchanged from the previous surveys in October 2020.

CboeFX reports average daily volume (ADV) of $30.8 billion for April, a 19.6% drop from March, but a 5.1% increase from April 2020. Taking out the two days around the Easter holiday which fell in April for those countries that observe it, CboeFX had ADV of $32.7 billion.

Firm liquidity ADV on the platform was $9 billion, down from $10.5 billion in March and $10.2 billion in April 2020 and reported by Cboe at 41% of ECN total volume, higher than in previous months. In terms of its share of overall volume, firm liquidity represented 29.22% of volume, up from March’s 27.46%, but down from 34.81% in April 2020. The non-firm fill rate (daily) on CboeFX was 88.64%, marking a third successive new high water market established by the platform.

Deutsche Borse’s 360T, meanwhile, reports spot ADV of $21 billion across its venues, down 17.6% from March, but up 11.7% from April 2020. Again, taking out the two days of Easter, 360T’s volumes would also have been higher, at $22.5 billion.

Finally in the first group of venues to report, Euronext FX had its second quietest month since January 2020, with ADV of $17.9 billion. This is down 15.6% month-on-month and also down 11.8% year-on-year. The impact of the two Easter holidays was less noticeable at Euronext FX – taking out those two days saw the platform’s ADV rise a fraction to $18 billion per day.