FXSpotStream Hits New Peak, Mixed Fortunes for EBS, CME
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: February 4, 2024
FXSpotStream has started 2024 on a good note, reporting a new high for FX volume over the service in January, meanwhile the news at CME Group was more mixed for its FX businesses.
FXSpotStream reports average daily volume (ADV) of $73.65 billion in January, popping above the previous peak of $73.4 billion in September 2022. Earlier in the month, the service announced the addition of Wells Fargo to its LP panel, historically a new LP has given FXSpotStream a boost. On a year-on-year basis this is a 21.5% up, but in contrast to the other early reporters, it is also strongly up on December, by 13.7%.
On a month-on-month basis the volume growth has been helped by non-spot volumes as well as spot – spot volumes on the service were $54.7 billion per day, representing a 6.3% increase from December and a 10.2% rise year-on-year. The peak for spot volumes on FXSpotStream came in September 2022 at $59.2 billion per day.
Elsewhere, there was mixed news for CME Group with its FX futures and options product suite providing their strongest January volumes since 2018 at 839,000 contracts per day. The Full FX estimates this to represent $84.3 billion per day in notional terms, and is up 10.6% year-on-year. There was strong growth in emerging markets – CME reported a strong 2023 in its EM product suite last week – with MXN, BRL and CNH all seeing good increases.
The CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL) shows that FX volatility expectations in January continued to trend down from the levels seen in 2023. The combined G5 CVOL index averaged 7.5 in January, down 25% from Jan 2023 and down 8% from FY 2023.
This declining volatility may be impacting EBS, although the platform did see increased volumes over December at $55 billion per day. This is up 4.6% month-on-month, but is down 11.9% year-on-year. In contrast to the parent company, this is EBS’ lowest January since the platform started reporting data in 2007.
There was better news for EBS from its NDF product suite, while CME does not provide ADV data for NDFs, it does say that volume hit $13 billion on one day. Late last month, 24 Exchange reported two consecutive days over $4 billion in NDFs, a new peak for that venue.
