More FX Platforms Report Volume Drop

A second group of FX platforms to report volume data confirm that FX markets were quieter in October in the lead in to the US election, although year-on-year performance, whilst mixed, was generally better.

Earlier this month (this publication was waiting for both primary venues to report but LSEG is yet to do so) CME Group reported that across its FX futures, cash and options markets, it handled $126 billion in notional average daily volume (ADV), with EBS at $58 billion per day, a 14.6% decline from September, but up 14.2% year-on-year. This is very much in line with EBS’ year-to-date average.

This leaves CME’s FX futures and options’ notional ADV at $68 billion, and at 792,000 contracts per day, it was the Merc’s quietest month in FX since August 2023. Volumes was sharply down month-on-month as expected due to September being a roll month, but year-on-year ADV was down 15.2%.

There was good news for CME in some of its Scandi and EM pairs, it says it experienced double-digit growth from October 2023 in CNH (to $396 million per day, and ZAR ($154 million), and triple-digit growth in both SEK (to $115 million per day) and NOK ($82 million). It also says that the October average daily Open Interest was a record for a non-roll month in the Scandies.

CME’s FX Link also saw a small decline from September, which saw it hit a new peak in ADV, trading $4.97 billion per day, a 13.6% decline month-on-month, but a massive 214.5% increase year-on-year.

Deutsche Börse says total FX volume on 360T was EUR 142.8 billion in October, this is also a decline from September, of 9.6%, but is up 11% year-on-year. Using a fixed exchange rate, The Full FX estimates that non-spot activity on 360T was $117.9 billion, down 9.6% from September but up 13.7% year-on-year. Earlier this month, 360T reported a more than $200 million per day increase in NDF activity to $2.12 billion per day, and spot volumes that were unchanged year-on-year but down 9.2% from September.

Singapore Exchange has also reported volume data, showing a slight decline in activity to 5.322 million contracts in October, a 3.8% drop from September, but up 62.8% year-on-year. This is a total notional value of $362.7 billion, or just under $16 billion per day. SGX’s biggest futures contract, USD/CNH had volume of 3.11 million contracts, down 10.8% from September, but up 50% year-on-year. INR futures activity rose 4.4% from September to 1.75 million contracts, this ius up 76% year-on-year.