FX Volumes Lower in October

After a strong run, FX volumes, as reported by the first group of platforms to provide data, fell back in October, although there was better news in NDFs.

FXSpotStream reports total FX average daily volume (ADV) of $93.1 billion, representing an 8.6% drop from September, which saw the service breach the $100 billion per day for the first time. Year-on-year, things continue to look good for FXSpotStream, however, with volumes up37.4%. Spot volumes were $66.8 billion, a drop of 7.2% from September, but up 26.6% year-on-year, while non-spot volumes also drifted lower, by 12% month-on-month to $26.3 billion per day, this is up 75.3% from October 2023.

360T reports spot ADV of $28.6 billion, down 9.2% from September and unchanged year-on-year. The platform also reports performance metrics, which saw the average round-trip time (RTT) drop to 6.9ms from 7.1ms and the New York matching engine continue to take the bulk of volume, 57% from 54% in September. That growth came at the expense of the London matching engine, with Tokyo unchanged at 14%. EUR/USD remains the busiest pair on 360T, however its share of activity dropped to 25% from 27% in September. USD/JPY also dropped two points to 12%, while Cable and CNH both rose one point to 9%.

CboeFX reports spot ADV of $42.8 billion, an 8.4% drop both month-on-month and year-on-year, of this $14 billion per day was traded on firm liquidity, a drop from $16 billion in September and $15 billion the previous October. The average response time on CboeFX was 10ms, unchanged from September and October 2023, while 93% of volume traded was done so anonymously and the non-firm fill rate stayed at 87%, below the recent average.

Euronext FX was another to see a drift lower in activity, SDV hitting $26.2 billion, a 5.1% drop from September, but up 13.4% year-on-year. In terms of performance, the RTT was 11.3ms to the New York matching engine and 19.6ms to London, both largely in line with the previous three months, while fill rates recovered slightly from a drop three months ago, it was 80.1% on the Skew Safe stream, 93.4% on the Full Amount stream and 74% on the platform. In September those metrics were 79.8%, 93.7% and 73% respectively – 25% of volume on the anonymous platform was firm.

NDF Boost

There was better news on NDFs for 360T and CboeFX, with both platforms reporting an increase, the former hitting its second highest ever, the latter a new peak for ADV.

360T saw NDF SDV was $2.12 billion per day in October, only the second time the platform has breached the $2 billion mark, behind June 2024’s $2.2 billion. This represents an 11.8% increase from September, and is up 47.75% year-on-year.

CboeFX SEF, meanwhile, hit a new peak at $1.55 billion per day, the second time it has hit a new high in the past three months. This is 10.7% up on September (which is the SEF’s third-busiest month to date), and up 31% year-on-year.

The third platform to report NDF volumes, 24 Exchange, in contrast, was unable to maintain its recent momentum. ADV in NDFs dropped 10.6% to just over $3.3 billion per day, however this is still the third busiest reported by the venue to date and up 60% year-on-year.