The Race among ECN eFX Execution Venues Heats Up

It’s been a very challenging first half of the year for foreign exchange operators, regardless of whether they are technology providers or brokers. The abysmal Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders Read this Term across major pairs left the industry struggling to gain traction as eFX trading volumes dropped across the board, especially in Q1.

While retail brokers were particularly hard hit, institutional trading venues have reported increasing volumes over the past couple of months.

In this article, we are taking an in-depth look at which venue dominated execution in the first half and highlight some trends which are worth keeping track of. The first chart we are analyzing shows the market share among other publicly reporting trading venues.

The lead of Refinitiv is undisputed as the company has two of the most popular trading platforms for electronic FX - FXall and Matching. The operator formerly owned by Thomson Reuters has been touted as a takeover target for the London Stock Exchange at a key time - just before Brexit Brexit Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum. In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019. Active Prime Minis Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum. In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019. Active Prime Minis Read this Term.

With 31 percent of the eFX market, Refinitiv is well ahead of CME’s subsidiary NEX - the owner of the EBS eFX execution venue. With 27 percent of the market throughout the quarter, the aggregated data shows a distant second spot. That said, the race has been heating up in recent months as we can see on the chart below.

Vibrant Race for Third

While FXSpotStream holds 13 percent of the market, it is in a tight race for the third spot with CBOE FX and Integral. All of the three companies have been rounding up the top three over the past six months.

Recent months have been positive for FXSpotStream as the company appears to be building a lead over CBOE, which rounded up the first half just ahead of Integral. Euronext’s Fastmatch services is in a distant third, holding only six percent of the market.