November 4, 2019 – The low volatility environment continues to have an impact on the numbers being reported by the major FX venues and platforms. Integral, the latest company to report volumes for November, reported today average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms totalled $34 billion ADV in November 2019. This is 6.6% down on the previous reported figures in November ($36.4 billion ADV).

Integral reported ADV in November 2018 of $38.3 billion.

Other venues have also reported similar (or stronger) declines for November. For example, FX Spotstream reported a decline of -7.2%, at $30.96 billion ADV. Spotstream also reported numbers down on the same period last year, when they reported $35.55 billion ADV.

Euronext FX (previously known as Fastmatch) reported ADV figures of $74.17 billion for November ($82.63 billion for the previous month of October). This also compares to a significant decline for the same last year when reported ADV on the venue was $95.28 billion (November 2018).

The takeaway from these reported numbers is that the market is generally reflecting the persistence of a low volatility environment. However we have already seen sharp moves in Cable (GBPUSD) this month as expectations seem to being set for the General Election result in the UK. December, despite the holiday period coming up, is very likely to show an increase in the ADV across all venues as the UK General election, and Brexit again comes to the fore, in the context of what look to be a confused picture from US / China trade talks.

Integral last month announced a potentially disruptive offering with its new venture, TrueFX, with Jefferies. Integral, with Jefferies FX Prime Brokerage (or a client of Jefferies FXPB) acting as the central clearer (CCP) is creating a more fluid environment for accessing liquidity by minimising the complexities of existing credit inefficiencies. It will be interesting to watch the impact of TrueFX on Integral reported volumes in 2020, to see if they are able to buck the trend compared to their peers as a result of TrueFX.

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