Late Month Surge Sends Platform FX Volumes Higher

Events in the Ukraine exacerbated already busy conditions in FX markets last week, propelling most of the first group of platforms to report data to their highest average daily volume (ADV) since March 2020. Amongst the data, FX SpotStream hit a new peak ADV, which included a new record day, while Cboe FX had what is believed to be its busiest day ever.

FXSpotStream reports ADV of $63.1 billion in February, pushing the platform just ahead of its previous high, in March 2020 when the pandemic first really hit markets, of $62.4 billion. The platform reports volume across all products, not just spot.

The February data includes a new peak day for the platform at $113.7 billion, significantly above what is believed to be the previous high of $86.5 billion on 9 March 2020, the date on which many platforms established new high marks. Month-on-month, ADV is up 19.1%, while year-on-year the increase is an impressive 27.2%

Cboe FX also established what is believed to be a new high for a single day in spot FX on February 24 of $84.1 billion, slightly above March 2020’s $83.6 billion. ADV for the month at Cboe FX was $42 billion, up 14.8% from January and up 12.9% year-on-year. The average fill rate on non-firm liquidity dipped, as is common when markets get busier, to 87.82% in February from 88.58% in January – the latter was close to the average fill rate for 2021 on Cboe FX at 88.51%.

Volumes on Cboe FX’ firm liquidity pool also jumped to $13.05 billion per day, the second highest since the exchange began reporting data, this represents an 11.7% increase from January and is up 21.8% year-on-year. In terms of overall volume, firm liquidity as a percentage was slightly lower at 31.07%, it was 31.93% in January (but averaged 29% in 2021).

Euronext FX reports spot FX ADV of $25 billion, up 12.1% from January and up 14.2% year-on-year. The platform registered its second busiest day at $46.4 billion on 24 February, the historic high, again 9 March 2020, was $54.6 billion.

It was a similar picture at 360T, where spot FX ADV was $25.4 billion, up 11.9% month-on-month, but only fractionally higher, by $100 million per day, than in February 2021. Unlike the other venues, this only represents the third busiest month for 360T, it had ADV of $25.5 billion in March 2021, which sits second to March 2020. Again, 24 February represents the second highest spot ADV at $44.9 billion, on 9 March 2020 it handled $50.3 billion.

Integral also received a boost, reporting ADV – across all products and platforms – of $54.9 billion in February, up 12.7% from January and up 8.9% year-on-year.

NDFs also Higher

NDF markets were also busier in February. 360T reports NDF ADV of $966 million per day, up by 11.8% from January and up 69.8% year-on-year. This marks the third consecutive month that 360T has achieved a new high in NDF volumes – February is the latest peak.

Cboe FX’ NDF venue reports ADV of $887 million, the second highest turnover, second only to October 2021’s $902 million. February activity is 20.5% higher than January and almost four-and-a-half times volume in February 2021.

Finally, there was also a new high for 24 Exchange’s NDF book, the venue recording ADV of $550 million. This is up 37.2% from January and 74.6% higher year-on-year.