Major ECNs’ Volumes Rebound in March as Volatility Picks Up

Foreign exchange trading electronic communications networks (ECNs) have once again published their monthly numbers for the month of March, all registering varying levels of growth. GAIN Capital’s GTX, Fastmatch and CBOE’s Hotspot all reported monthly climbs in volumes as volatility picked up.

GAIN GTX

GAIN Capital reported trading volumes of its institutional business for March 2017, having largely shown a strong performance across its ECN, SEF and SD facilities. The group’s average daily volumes (ADV) at GAIN Capital’s GTX ECN and Swap Execution Facility (SEF) came in at $11.8 billion, good for a modest increase of 7 percent month-on-month from $11.0 billion in February 2017.

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Across a yearly timeframe, March 2017 showed a more substantial jump of 61.0 percent year-on-year from March 2016. Additionally, total trading volumes during the third month of 2017 came in at $271.6 billion, rising 23.0 percent from $221.6 billion in the month prior, coupled with a 61.0 percent surge year-on-year from the figures of a year ago.

Finally, the average daily trading volume across the company’s swap dealer (SD) facility amounted to $2.4 billion last month, incurring a decline of -20.0 percent month-on-month from $3.0 billion in February 2017. Conversely, this monthly drop was offset by a 5.0 percent rise year-on-year from March 2016.

Fastmatch

Average daily trading volumes transacted via Fastmatch climbed 15.7 percent in March 2017 to $19.2 billion from $16.6 billion in February 2017. The results corroborate a steady ascension that is on a par with its peers in the industry. Looking at a year-over-year timeframe, Fastmatch’s volumes in March 2017 were also higher by a factor of 89.7 percent, having submitted a reading of $441.2 billion relative to just $232.5 billion in March 2016.

Hotspot

Hotspot’s month-on-month and year-on-year both also registered a healthy growth in March 2017, matching its other peers in an upward trajectory. Given a differential in trading days (23 days to 20 in the month prior), its average daily trading volumes amounted to $29.7 billion in March 2017, virtually unchanged month-over-month from $29.9 billion in February 2017.

However, looking at its total volumes, Hotspot inked a figure of $683.0 billion for March 2017, jumping 26.6 percent month-over-month from just $539.6 billion in February 2017. These figures also showed a healthy uptick on a year-over-year basis, with average daily volumes rising 16.5 percent year-over-year from $25.5 billion and total volumes jumping 16.4 percent year-over-year from $587.0 billion in March 2016.