FX Platforms Jan 16: Top tier FX platforms report strong gains, led by EBS +37%

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Paul Blank

The top-tier FX platforms have now released their Jan 2016 volumes.

In terms of Spot FX, all the major platforms delivered strong performances:

  • EBS +37.7% to $103bn/day ($74.8bn/day in Dec 15), still down –1.7% compared to Jan 15 level at $104.8bn/day
  • Reuters spot+35.2% to $123bn/day ($91bn/day in Dec 15), +16% compared to Jan 15 at $106bn/day
  • The CME +9.4% to $121bn/day ($111bn/day in Dec 15), up +1.1% compared to Jan 15 level of $120bn/day

In terms of other products, Continue reading →

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BofE FX Survey data: London FX volumes down -21% in Oct 15 (SDP volume+6%, MDP volume -13%)

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Paul Blank

The Bank of England today released their latest semi-annual FX turnover survey results for Oct 2015.

Highlights on London FX volumes for Oct 2015

  • Total FX volume  of $2,148bn/day, down -13.4% compared to Apr 15, and down -21% compared to a year earlier, and the lowest volumes since Oct 12.
  • All product volume  fell:
    • Spot -24% at $737bn/day (and down -34% on year earlier, to lowest since Oct 12)
    • FX Options – 24%
    • NDFs -16% and FWD -13% although FX Swaps were only -2%
  • Turnover fell in most currency pairs:
    • EUR/USD down -17% to $640bn/day
    • Only three in top 22 currency pairs rose:
      • USD/AUD +8%
      • USD/CNY + 3%
      • USD/KRW +11%.

Continue reading →

Filed under: FX, Paul Blank, Survey Results | 2 Comments »

Reuters announce FX Options vols increased 166% in 2015 (seems far higher than official BofE survey data suggests)

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Paul Blank

A Reuters press release on FX Options caught my eye today. The announcement states that:

Thomson Reuters FX dealer-to-client venue saw a surge in options trading volumes of 166 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year. In particular the fourth quarter of 2015 saw record-high monthly, weekly and daily volumes with over 36 global and local active options price-makers and more than 225 active options price-takers now on Thomson Reuters FX platform.

Thomson Reuters FX Trading provides both relationship trading (bank-to-client) and bi-lateral trading (interbank) for vanilla and exotic FX options. In recent months the company has introduced electronic FX options callouts to streamline how banks can access options liquidity in the interbank market. By providing one single point of access to options liquidity via electronic callouts or via Thomson Reuters FXall dealer-to-client request-for-quote service, FX Trading helps market participants to efficiently manage their trading risk.

According to Phil Weisberg, Global Head of FX at Reuters: Continue reading →

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CLS FX Settlement: Value of transactions up 1.4% in Dec 15, end year at lowest levels since Aug 13

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Paul Blank

The CLS FX settlement system has reported a slight increase of +1.4% in the ADV of FX trades settled through their platform in Dec 15, taking volumes back up to $4.47trillion/day (up from $4.41trillion/day in Nov 15). This is the lowest on the platform since Aug 2013.

In terms of number of transactions settled, these were almost unchanged at 961,698 in Dec 15, although they are now at their lowest level since Jul 14.

Details from the platform and charts are as follows:

CLS value of instructions submitted: $4.47 trillion/day in Dec 15, up +1.4% on the $4.41 trillion/day in Nov 15, although down -8.2% compared to Dec 14.

CLS number of instructions submitted: 961,698/day in Dec 15, down -0.3% on the 964,810 in Nov 15, and down -21.4% on Dec 14 level of 1,223,109.

Average Trade size: $4.65mln in Dec 15, up +1.7% on the $4.57mln in Nov 15 and up +16.7% compared to the $3.98mln in Dec 14.

CLS Clearing charts Dec 15

CLS Data: Value and number of transactions submitted to CLS in Dec 2015

Note: CLS reports both sides of an FX transaction. To adjust the average daily value data to equate to the same reporting convention used by the Bank for International Settlements and the semi-annual foreign exchange committee market reports, the gross values should be divided by two.

 

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FX Platforms Dec 15: Reuters and EBS almost unchanged in Dec 15, whilst The CME showed strong 24% gain.

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Paul Blank

The top-tier FX platforms have now released their Dec 15 FX vols.

In terms of Spot FX vols, Reuters and EBS are barely changed, with Reuters +1.1% at $91bn/day, whilst EBS -0.9% at $74.8bn/day. However, in terms of other products, Reuters showed an +8.8% rise in other product vols, including NDFs and swaps (on their SEF) to $246bn/day.

However, The CME Group, had a great end of year, with a strong +24.1% gain in all FX product vols in Dec to stand at $110.6bn/day ($89bn/day in Nov 15). Although given that it’s Dec, we can’t really read too much into year-end figures.

1st tier platform vols Dec 15Table showing Top Tier platforms: Reuters, EBS and CME Futures vols for Dec 2015

If we look closer at Continue reading →

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The continual rise of non-bank market-makers.

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Paul Blank

I have covered the rise of ‘non-bank’ or ‘alternative’ market-makers a few times recently, notably here, here and here.

Looking at how, armed with market leading technology, talented etrading techies from sell-side firms and teams of razor-sharp quants, these firms are now providing deep consistent liquidity to the market in a capacity previously the preserve of the top-tier ‘flow’ monster’ banks.

The perception of non-bank market makers has traditionally been Continue reading →

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FX 2nd tier platform vols Dec 15: Fastmatch (+13%) & Hotspot (+7%) in Dec 15

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Paul Blank

FX volumes for December across platforms increased, following Fed governor Janet Yellon’s comments on 2nd Dec about The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy, and the subsequent move to raise the discount rate.

Among the second tier FX platforms, FastMatch vols rose +13% in Dec 15 to $9.5bn/day, following the -6.4% drop in November, and still down -13.7% compared to the Dec 14 level of $11bn/day.

Meanwhile Hotspot vols rose +7% to $24bn/day in Dec 15 (following the -6.4% fall in Nov 15), and down -13.4% compared to Dec 14 level of $27.7bn/day.

Whilst we are still waiting for EBS and Reuters, The CME has released Dec metrics, which show a far Continue reading →

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Interesting Celent report on future of Spot FX trading technology & platforms

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Paul Blank

Just finished reviewing an interesting Celent report by Brad Bailey, on evolving spot FX market structure and technology trends in light of changes in global regulation, a blurring of traditional liquidity pools and the ongoing competitive landscape.

Brad touches on a number of the themes we have covered here over the year, but it’s always good to have someone else’s perspective on them.

The themes covered being: Continue reading →

Filed under: FX, MDP, OTC, Paul Blank, Regulation, Single-Dealer Platforms, Survey Results, Technology Trends | 1 Comment »

Right-sizing in FICC – more cuts probably on the way

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Paul Blank

Last week, Morgan Stanley announced another wave of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) redundancies. Some 1,200 due to leave the bank, of which around 500 (I have seen this equated to nearly 25%) coming from front-office FICC sales and trading positions, and many being at MD and above level.

In their Q3, 2015 figures released in Oct, they made mention of the underperformance in FICC:

  • Institutional Securities net revenues excluding DVA were $3.5 billion
  • continued strength in Equity sales and trading
  • leadership in Investment Banking with notable strength in M&A
  • underperformance in Fixed Income & Commodities sales and trading
  • FICC sales and trading net revenues of $583m down from $997m in Q3, 2014 primarily reflecting difficult market conditions for our credit and securitized products businesses

Indeed, looking at 2014 full year results below, we can see that FICC contributions to overall revenues have Continue reading →

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FX Platforms Nov15: Reuters FX spot vols down -13.5% in Nov (lowest since Jan-13)

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Paul Blank

Thomson Reuters has released Nov15  FX vols, which show a fourth monthly drop, with FX Spot vols down -13.5% at $90bn/day, the lowest reported vols for Reuters spot FX since Reuters started releasing their new format of volumes in Jan 13, whilst overall Reuters FX volumes down -10.5% at $316bn/day to the lowest level since Nov 13.

This compares to EBS, who reported vols down -9.9% at $75.5bn/day (lowest since the $70.6bn/day reported in Jul 14), although The CME faired better with the smallest fall, down -3.2% at $89.1bn/day (lowest since Aug 14).

1st tier platform vols Nov 15Table showing Top Tier platforms: Reuters, EBS and CME Futures vols for Nov 2015

If we look closer at Continue reading →

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