FX Volumes Mixed in October

While there was little or no growth from the previous month, the first group of platforms report FX volume data indicate that activity maintained recent high levels in October, and was solidly up year-on-year.

Deutsche Börse’s 360T reports spot FX average daily volume (ADV) of $28.6 billion, just 1.7% down on September, which was the second busiest in the platform’s history. This also represents a 20.2% increase from October 2023, reinforcing what looks like being a solid end to the year for the platform.

The average round-trip time (RTT) on 360T was 6.3ms, unchanged from the previous month, although there seems to have been an uptick in activity through the New York engine, which handled 57% of flow, up from 53% in September. The London engine dropped commensurately to 31% from 35% of volume, with Tokyo unchanged at 12%. The currency pair make up was largely the same also, with EUR/USD (28%), and USD/JPY (12%) unchanged in their share of volume, while Cable ticked slightly higher, to 10% from 9%), while USD/CNH dropped from 8% to 6%).

FXSpotStream, meanwhile, hit its highest level of the year at $67.75 billion per day in overall activity, however this is a slight drop from October 2022, activity being some 2% lower. On a month-on-month basis, activity was up 2.7%. The drop in activity from the previous year was the result of a 6.8% decline in spot activity, which was $52.75 billion in October. FXSpotStream says volume in other FX products was $15 billion, up 19.5% year-on-year.

Euronext FX reports spot ADV of $23.1 billion in October, a 3.5% drop from September, but still the third highest in the last 13 months – year-on-year activity was up 7.4%. 24.3% of anonymous volume was firm (it was 25.8% in September), while the average fill rate on the Skew Safe streams was 82.2% (from 82.5%), on Full Amount it was 92.8% (92.9%) and on the platform it was 82.4% (83.7%). The average RTT to the New York engine was 10.4ms, up from 8.2ms in September, and from London it was 11.8ms, up from 10.8ms.

Finally in the early reporters, Cboe FX handled spot ADV of $46.75 billion, up 3.2% from September and up 9.5% year-on-year – this is the second highest ADV this year. Slightly less volume was traded on a firm price, $15 billion per day from the peak of $16 billion in September. The average response time was 10ms and the non-form fill rate was 90%, both of which were unchanged from September, while 89% of volume was anonymous, compared to 90% in September.

NDF Activity Higher

Meanwhile, all three platforms to report NDF data saw increased activity in October. 360T reports $1.435 billion per day in NDF, up 25.9% from September, but more in line with recent activity on the platform, the previous three months had all seen activity in this region. Year-on-year, NDF volume is up 17% on 360T.

CboeFX meanwhile, reports $1.183 billion per day on its SEF, this is up 9.3% month-on-month, and up 33.1% year-on-year. Finally, 24 Exchange, which hit a new daily peak in NDFs above $3 billion during the month, has recorded its second monthly ADV above $2 billion, handling $2.067 billion, a 13.9% increase from September and up 117% year-on-year. This is the second busiest month for NDFs at 24 Exchange since launch.