Volumes figures released by EBS, Reuters and CME show a good pick up in activity in October. The average daily turnover on EBS rose 7% from September to $137.6 billion; the CME posted its highest non-roll month ever, which one of its employees asserts highlights “the trend towards the benefits of trading FX futures on exchange.”
Naturally, I couldn’t accept such a bold claim without responding. “Nice try – I will also use the example of what happened on the TFX this week (see TFX story) as an example of the perils of trading on an exchange.”
Anyway, turnover rose to an average daily total of $99 billion, an impressive 33% increase on October 2008 and a small increment on September 2009’s $98 billion, which was distorted by the quarterly roll. The CME posted records in several currency pairs not purely due to valuation effects.
Reuters also posted strong figures. Daily spot turnover came in at $136 billion, an increase of 7.3% on September. Ostensibly, Reuters appears to be challenging EBS’s long-term position as the predominant spot venue in the market. However, the figures from EBS, Reuters and the CME are not all reporting the exact same parameters and so must be treated with some caution.