Mixed Volumes for FX Platforms to End 2024

The first group of platforms to report FX volumes for December indicate that conditions were, naturally, quieter than November, but were more upbeat year-on-year.

FXSpotStream reports December average daily volume (ADV) of $92.1 billion, down 8.2% from November, largely thanks to an increase in non-spot volumes. Spot volumes declined to $62.2 billion in December, a 13.9% drop, while non-spot ADV was $29.9 billion, a 6.7% increase.

Year-on-year, FXSpotStream reports impressive growth, across all products it was up 42.1%, in spot it was up 20.8% and in non-spot, a real growth area for the service, it was up almost 125%.

Deutsche Börse’s 360T had a similar end to the year, spot ADV was $29.4 billion, a 7% drop from November, while year-on-year it was up 1%. NDF volumes at 360T were up month-on-month, however, by 18.5% to $2.05 billion – a 60.5% year-on-year rise.

The average round-trip time (RTT) on 360T was steady around 7ms, while 56% of volume was executed on the New York matching engine, up from 55% in November. London ADV was steady at 30%, with Tokyo drifting to 14%. The end of the year definitely saw activity in non-major pairs, 360T reports that EUR/USD volume was 27% of activity, down from 29%, while USD/JPY was 10%, down from 12% and Cable was unchanged at 8%. CNH activity was also lower at 9%.

Cboe FX and Euronext FX both saw activity slightly lower than the previous December (and November), Cboe says spot FX ADV was $41 billion, down 14% from November and down 7.9% from December 2023, which was the platform’s busiest December on record. Within this, $15 billion per day was on the platform’s firm streams, slightly lower than November, but higher as a percentage of overall spot volume. Most performance stats were unchanged at Cboe FX, there was an average RTT of 10ms, 93% of volume was anonymous and the non-firm fill rate lifted slightly to 89% from 88%.

Cboe FX SEF also saw a healthy increase in activity in NDFs, ADV was $2.14 billion, up 15% from November and up 98.7% year-on-year.

Euronext FX, meanwhile, reports spot SDV of $24 billion, a 17.8% drop from November and down 2% year-on-year (also the platform’s busiest December). RTTs to New York and London were largely stable at 11.6ms and 19.3ms respectively (London was 0.3ms quicker than November, while 25.3% of volume on the anonymous streams was firm. Fill rates were mixed from November at 80.7% on the Skew Safe streams (from 81.2% in November), 93.9% on the Full Amount (93%) and 75.3% on the Platform (74.6%).