Japanese traders show confidence in September as MONEX reports 2nd best OTC FX average daily trade sizes of the year

Japanese electronic trading giant Monex Group, Inc. (TYO:8698) has announced its monthly trading metrics for the month of September, displaying a dichotomy between the company’s overall monthly trading revenues, and the average size per trade.

MONEX reports that during September this year, global FX trading volume amounted to $38.6 billion, a considerable downturn from the previous month’s $42.2 billion, but still a very even keel and relatively consistent with recent monthly performance during 2015, the company’s OTC FX business in Japan accelerated as traders made an average trade value per business day of 16.8 trillion yen MORE in September than they did in August.

The overall figure of $38. 6 billion for the month, whilst down from last month by 8.5% is still healthy and is higher than the overall volume traded in February, April and May this year, however during September, trading at the firm’s US subsidiary TradeStation decreased, further contributing to a lower overall figure.

OTC FX in Japan goes from strength to strength

A distinct point to consider with regard to this month’s metrics is that the average trade value per business day increased to 191.9 trillion yen, compared to 175.1 trillion yen in August.

There were less active accounts during the month of September, down very slightly from 64,723 to 63,467, however this slight downturn would very likely have been offset by the vastly greater average trade sizes that took place, however the number of daily average revenue trades (DARTS) dipped substantially to 183,682 from 212,335 recorded in August. Despite this drop, the increase in trade sizes was enough to bolster the revenues.

By comparison, TradeStation, which only records its daily average metrics by the number of trades which took place, and does not report its average trade value, mustered an average of 130,460 revenue trades per business day (DARTS) compared with 139,882 during August, which was the highest figure since January.

The high values of trades conducted on an OTC basis by MONEX Group’s customers in September staves off any speculation that Japanese retail traders are beginning to gravitate toward exchange-traded FX as a preference, a dynamic which has been evident recently, especially when considering the upturn in trading activity in Click365 margin FX contracts which are futures contracts traded on Tokyo Financial Exchange, and that an appetite for large volume being conducted in one trade is still very much on the agenda in Japan.

 

For the full report from MONEX Group, click here.