Daily retail FX volumes rise in Q3 -industry website

Global Brokerage

11/11/2016 16:07

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Foreign exchange trading through 
online retail brokers ticked higher in the third quarter, helped 
by a rise in politically driven volatility that is looking like 
the main factor driving the world's biggest financial market 
this year.  
    Data published by researchers Finance Magnates Business 
Intelligence (www.financemagnates.com) ahead of an annual 
industry summit in London showed brokers traded almost $7.5 
trillion per month worldwide in the three months to the end of 
September, up from $7.23 trillion in the previous quarter. 
    Previously viewed as a sideshow to the trading between banks 
and big investment and pension funds that forms the core of the 
$5 trillion-a-day global market in currencies, the retail sector 
has grown steadily in the last five years. 
    A retreat in wholesale volumes has also made retail accounts 
a larger part of overall market activity, and trading rose 
sharply in both quarterly and annual terms at the start of this 
year. 
    "It's fair to say that Brexit, or rather the continuous 
volatility it has created, has contributed to a mild uptick in 
volumes, in a quarter usually marked by summer slowdown," the 
website's head of content Jonathan Fine said.  
    The data, none of which has been checked by Reuters, showed 
volumes outside the huge Japanese market which makes up almost 
half of all global retail trading rose to $4.15 trillion a 
month, or $189 billion a day, from $172 billion a day in the 
second quarter. 
    Two Asia-focused brokers, GMO Click and DMM.com, continued 
to lead the website's rankings with volumes more than double 
those of their nearest competitors.  
    Daily trade in Japan, however, dipped to $150 billion from 
$163 billion in the second quarter.  
 
 (editing by John Stonestreet) 
 ((patrick.graham@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 9429; Reuters 
Messaging: patrick.graham.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: MARKETS FOREX/VOLUMES