KCG Reports January 2014 Trading Volumes, FX ADV Jumps 23% Month-Over-Month

Photo: Steven Hatzakis

KCG According the latest performance results from New Jersey-based KCG Holdings, Inc., the broker today released trade volumes for the month of January 2014.

KCG Hotspot averaged $34.1 billion per day in notional foreign exchange dollar volume, rising by $6.5 billion over December’s ADV of $27.6 billion, an increase of over 23% month-over-month (MoM).

Join the iFX EXPO Asia and discover your gateway to the Asian Markets

This would put total notional FX volumes traded during January just at three quarters of a trillion dollars, or $749.4 billion, calculated by the total number of trading days in the month.

From a year-over-year (YoY) perspective, this January’s totals were up nearly 26% from $27.1 billion in January 2013.

The company had compared its performance to leading reporting venues, which in the excerpt below shows similar increases in January 2014 from a MoM perspective, with YoY changes weighted heavily in the favor of KCG with the only positive figures when compared from that period:

Suggested articles

Reclassifying Your Traders as "Pros" - How Can You Do It Right?Go to article >>

January 2014 comparisons [source KCG] — January 2014 Comparisons [source KCG]

In market-making, KCG averaged $28.0 billion dollar volume traded, 8.4 billion shares traded, and 4.1 million trades per day in U.S. equities.

The firm reported that its Global Execution Services, including agency-based algorithmic and EMS trade volumes through Knight Direct and GETAlpha averaged an aggregate 272.4 million shares traded per day in U.S. equities, where it maintains a leading market share of volumes. KCG BondPoint averaged $140.5 million per day in fixed income par value, according to the company press release.

KCG Hotspot provided a chart showing its trade activity in Foreign Exchange on an hourly basis across its most traded pairs, with the largest peak seen as the European session transitions into the New York Opening:

As for the overall market conditions in January, consolidated U.S. equity volumes averaged $272.6 billion in dollar volume and 6.9 billion shares traded per day, and the realized volatility for the S&P was 12.8. The company noted that in January there were 21 trading days in U.S. equities, 22 trading days in foreign exchange, and 21 trading days in fixed income. An excerpt of reported metrics can be seen in the graphic below from the company’s official press release today: