The institutional demand for e-forex trading came in mixed for December, as according to the official figures, demand on CboeFX and FXSpotStream declined, while Deutsche Börse's 360T and EuronextFX witnessed an increase. Overall, the average daily volume (ADV) fell by 2 percent.

Cyclical Decline in FX ADV

The overall spot forex trading volume on CboeFX last month was $890.4 billion, a month-over-month decrease of 11.7 percent. It was the lowest monthly figure on the American platform since last April. Year-over-year, the monthly figure strengthened by more than 15 percent.

However, the ADV on the platform came in at $44.5 billion, only a 3 percent drop from $45.9 billion in the previous month. The overall monthly trading volume was also impacted by only 20 trading days in December, while the month before had 22.

The trading volume dip in December is not unusual and is a cyclical phenomenon in the industry due to the year-end holidays. Coming to the quarterly figures, CboeFX handled $2.92 trillion in trading volume between October and December, compared to $2.82 trillion in the previous three months.

FXSpotStream, an FX electronic liquidity distribution provider, also followed the trend and witnessed ADV diminish 7.5 percent month-on-month, totaling $64.8 billion. Out of the total, spot trading contributed to the ADV of $49.2 billion, while $15.6 billion was attributed to other streams. Despite the monthly decline, the total ADV improved 12.51 percent year-over-year.

Platforms Defying the Industry Trend

When it comes to European platforms, the demand for spot forex trading increased in December. Deutsche Börse's 360T reported an ADV of $27.688 billion last month, an increase of 2.2 percent from the previous month.

EuronextFX (formerly FastMatch) is another platform that witnessed a demand uptick in December. The ADV on the platform for December was at $24.481 billion, 0.7 percent higher than in November.