Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX) has today announced its full results for the December 2013, a month during which the number of exchange-traded FX Margin contracts (Click 365) amounted to 2,798,007, which represents an increase of 11.8% compared to November 2013, however, a downturn of  31.4% was suffered when compared to December 2012, which is rather unusual considering the generally low trading volumes experienced by a majority of industry participants last year.

The average daily trading volume (ADV) achieved from Click365 order flow was 127,186 for December. Such diminished figures are no doubt a point of interest for Invast Securities, which is set to acquire 120,000 FX accounts on Click365 as part of an absorption-type agreement, taking effect on March 2 this year.

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At the time of announcement, Invast Securities President, Takeshi Kawaji detailed to Forex Magnates that only $1,000 changed hands in order to set such an agreement into effect.

Reversal Of Industry Trend – Overall Decrease In Year-on-Year Figures

An interesting set of results were produced by TFX during December 2013, in the respect that whilst the majority of the figures reflect a steady increase in volumes when compared with November’s results, a dramatic difference is apparent when comparing the results for December 2013 with the same period last year.

Despite OTC trading activity in Japan having reached epic and unprecedented levels for a sustained period during 2013, with GMO Click Securities and DMM Securities having posted monthly results of over $1 trillion each on more than one occasion during the summer, it is evident that exchange-based trading activity is on the wane by comparison.

Indeed, the only currency pair for which trading volume was higher in December 2013 compared to December 2012 was USD/JPY, for which a 22% increase made itself present.

Aside from that specific pair, the entirety of the other pairs traded on the exchange showed a significant decrease, esepcially the EUR/JPY pair, for which trading volume was 69.3% weaker than that of December 2012.

Comparative to November 2013, the EUR/JPY pair also attracted less trading volume, with a 9.1% decrease having been experienced.

Futures Takes A Nosedive

The trading volume of three-month EUR/JPY futures in December was 334,588, accounting for an ADV of 16,729 which is down 28.9% when compared with November’s results, and represents a decrease of 1.1% compared with December 2012.

Whilst a marked difference has been experienced at TFX compared to other venues, and a stark contrast compared to compatriot OTC FX firms is apparent, the figures demonstrated here go more than a degree further to emphasize Japan’s penchant for OTC FX.