CLS Group’s August Trading Volumes Unable to Shake Tight Consolidation

CLS Group has reported its latest volumes and aggregation services statistics for the month ending August 2017. CLS’ volumes have now seen a marked decline for three consecutive months, part of a mixed bag in terms of volumes for institutional venues this summer.

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The results at CLS Group were largely on par with other institutional venues, many of which saw a checkered performance in terms of volumes in the summer months. Despite episodes of volume declines, markets were unusually active during August 2017, spurred by an erosion of the USD to multi-year lows vs. majors and escalating tensions with North Korea.

Per the latest figures, CLS Group chalked up a monthly decline for the third month in a row, notably in terms of submitted average daily input volume. In terms of August 2017, CLS’s submitted average daily input volume, which combines its settlement and aggregation services, was reported at $1.581 trillion during the month.

This corresponded to a marginal decline of less than 1.0 percent from $1.596 trillion set back in July 2017. Overall, this reading did manage to best its August 2016 counterpart, en route to a year-over-year increase of 14.8 percent from $1.39 trillion.

Of note, this slight decline took place despite a high differential of trading days in August 2017, which features 23 days, compared to just 20 in July. Additionally, the latest batch of statistics in August 2017 included a swaps figure of $1.052 trillion, which rose on a monthly basis against $1.042 trillion in July 2017, or approximately 1.0 higher percent month-over-month.

As was the case with its average daily input volume, the latest figures at CLS Group represented an improvement over 2016 as well, growing by 10.3 percent year-over-year from $954.0 billion in August 2016.

Looking at spot FX volumes, CLS Group reported $433.0 billion in August 2017, down 4.4 percent month-over-month from $453.0 billion in July 2017. This change was inverted positively over a year-over-year interval, notching a gain of 21.4 percent from $373.0 billion in August 2016.

Finally, forwards came in at $96.0 billion in August 2017, indicative of a month-over-month drop of 4.9 percent from $101.0 billion in July 2017 – forwards also advanced by a much broader margin compared to August 2016, climbing 52.4 percent year-over-year from $63.0 billion.