Top tier FX Platforms Mar 16: Reported weak results, EBS volumes sharply lower -18.4%


In terms of Spot FX, all the major platforms delivered lower results in Mar  16.

  • EBS -18.4% to $83.7bn/day ($102.6bn/day in Feb 16), down -26.9% compared to Mar 15 level of $114.5bn/day
  • Reuters spot -6.3% to $104bn/day ($111bn/day in Feb 16), down -21.2% compared to Mar 15 of $132bn/day
  • The CME -4.2% to $114bn/day ($119bn/day in Feb 16), down -16.1% compared to Mar 15 level of $136bn/day

In terms of other products, Reuters showed a rise of +5.3% in other product volumes, including NDFs and swaps (on their SEF) to $258bn/day.

1st tier platform vols Mar16

Table showing Top Tier platforms: Reuters, EBS and CME Futures vols for Mar 2016

Looking at Reuters: Chart below shows Reuters Spot, Other volumes (which includes SEF swaps as well as NDF and FX Options vols) and total vols.

Reuters FX Vols Mar 16Displaying image005.pngReuters Monthly FX vols for Spot, Other and total vols Mar 16

Turning back now to comparing major platforms, below are two charts showing performance of the platforms.

1st tier platform Chart vols Mar 16

Charts showing relative performance of Reuters and EBS and The CME Mar 16

Reuters-EBS Difference: Looking at the differential that we track between Reuters-EBS (red line) in chart below, in Feb the differential broke below the upward sloping dotted black trend line, showing a strengthening of EBS over Reuters.

This has been completely revered in March, due to the weakness of EBS relative to Reuters. It will now be interesting to see if we can break back above the dotted line as shown inside the green box, a failure to do so, will see EBS volumes once again strengthen relative to Reuters.

Reuters - EBS difference Charts Mar 16

Chart showing the gap between Reuters and EBS spot FX (Reuters-EBS) vols for Mar 16

Second tier platforms (Fastmatch and Hotspot reported Mar vols last week, here)

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