Platforms Hit Post-Pandemic Peaks as FX Activity Soars

April was a busy month in FX markets, with three of the first four platforms to report results hitting post-pandemic highs, and FXSpotStream setting a new high-water mark – all in a month that started with a major market holiday in many parts of the world.

FXSpotStream reports average daily volume (ADV) of $91.9 billion, an 11.3% increase from March – which itself was a record – and up a massive 66.2% year-on-year. Spot volumes at FXSS were also at a new high at $66.1 billion – this is a 13.6% increase from March and is up 48.9% year-on-year – demonstrating that the firm’s non-spot business continues to grow.

There were also some very healthy year-on-year increases elsewhere, with 360T, Cboe FX and Euronext FX all hitting their second best months, beaten only by March 2020 and the onset of the pandemic.

360T reports spot ADV of $29.8 billion for April, although interestingly, the relationship model at 360T did not see the same pace of growth as the ECNs. This is an 0.85% rise from March and is up 17.3% year-on-year. In terms of platform performance, the average round-trip time (RTT) was 7.2ms, slightly higher than recent months when it was 6.8ms. New York continues to host the most volume at 58% of activity, up from 54% from March, while London saw 29%, down from 31%, and Tokyo also saw a 2% decline to 13%.

Although USD/JPY was the point of focus for many in the FX market in April, but interestingly, 360T actually saw USD/JPY’s share of the volume actually dropped, from 16% in March, to 14% in April. EUR/USD saw its share rise to 25%, from 23% in March, while Cable saw activity drop by one point to 8%, while CNH was unchanged at 7%.

Cboe FX reports ADV of $50 billion, only the second time it has hit the 50 billion mark, this is an 8.7% increase from March and is up 25.9% year-on-year. Firm volume on Cboe FX was $16 billion, up from $15 billion in March, and up from just under $14 billion in April 2023. The average response time from non-firm activity was 9ms, slightly quicker than March, but largely in keeping with the longer-term average. The percentage of anonymous volume on Cboe FX was 94%, unchanged from March, which was a high for the platform; the non-firm fill rate was 90%, also unchanged.

Euronext FX was another to hit a recent high, again since March 2020, at $28.7 billion – this is 11.7% higher than March and up 45.7% year-on-year. The average RTT on Euronext FX was 10.3ms to New York and 7.3ms to London – slower to New York from 8.1ms in March, and unchanged to London. 28.7% of the anonymous platform was firm at Euronext FX, slightly lower than in March, while fill rates on three of its venues were also down – Skew Safe was 83.1% (from 84%); Full Amount was 94.4% (94.9%); while on the platform it was 81.4% (82.9%).

NDF Volumes Drift

Unlike spot volumes, activity in NDFs actually drifted lower in April. On 24 Exchange, ADV in NDFs was just over $3.1 billion, a 4% decline from March, but up 141.1% year-on-year. This remains the second-busiest month for 24X in NDFs.

Elsewhere, 360T’s NDF ADV was $1.64 billion, down 3.3% from March, but also up healthily year-on-year by 58.6% Cboe SEF also saw a small decline in activity at $1.28 billion per day. This is down 2.5% from March, but also well up year-on-year, by 42.2%.

While EBS does not publish NDF volumes, sources tell The Full FX that the platform hit close to $11 billion in one-month Asian NDFs twice in the month.