Leading FX ECN, Hotspot has announced dismal figures for the month of August, a trend seen across the FX markets. August is typically a slow month as most traders are on vacation, however August 2011 was extremely volatile and volumes reflected the market sentiment.
Hotspot is part of the Knight Group a leading market maker in US equities. The firm suffered a major computer glitch which resulted in a loss of $440 million. Hotspot’s current figures are not far from the daily trade volumes the large retail FX brokers achieve.
Volume Snapshot
In August 2012, Hotspot FX experienced a decrease in volume resulting in an average Daily Volume (ADV) of $21.0 billion with a total of $482.2 billion transacted on the platform. Among publicly reported spot FX volumes (Hotspot FX, ICAP/EBS, Reuters, FXall), Hotspot FX’s market share was 8.4% in August 2012; up from 7.8% in August 2011.
August 2012 Statistics (Single Count, USD):
- Hotspot FX posted an ADV of $21.0 billion. (based on 23 trading days)
§ ADV declined 19.2% versus July 2012. (July 2012 ADV: $25.9 billion)
§ ADV declined 33.5% versus August 2011. (August 2011 ADV: $31.5 billion)
- Total Volume: $482.2 billion.
Monthly Statistics:
|
USD Dollar Value Traded |
Average Daily Volume (ADV) |
|
| August 2012 |
$482.2 Billion |
$21.0 Billion |
| August 2011 |
$724.9 Billion |
$31.5 Billion |
Volume Breakdown
In August 2012, the Americas sessions decreased by 1.41%, versus, the European session which continued its positive trend and gained .36 % in market share from July. The Asian session increased as well by 1.04% in August.
Volume percentages by time zone were:
|
Asia |
Europe |
Americas |
|
| Volume Percentage (August 2012) |
11.28% |
47.35% |
41.37% |
| Volume Percentage (July 2012) |
10.24% |
46.99% |
42.78% |
The Top five currency pairs by volume percentage were as follows:
| Currency Pair |
EUR/USD |
AUD/USD |
USD/JPY |
GBP/USD |
USD/CAD |
| Percentage |
39.97% |
11.68% |
10.68% |
10.44% |
7.12% |
Generally, the majority of our Top 20 pairs remained unchanged in regards to rankings and experienced modest volume fluctuations. The exception being JPY based pairs, which climbed slightly in the ranks. Most notable movement occurred in: EUR/USD which remained firmly as #1 despite the 1.63% decrease in activity. USD/JPY regained the #3 position due to a 1.58% increase in activity. Lastly, GBP/JPY climbed two places to become 13th most active resulting from a .25% increase in trading.
Relative Volume Chart
Hotspot’s August ADV compares to the following results from other reporting venues:
|
August 2012 vs. July 2012 |
August 2012 vs. August 2011 |
|
| Hotspot FX |
-19% |
-34% |
| EBS/ICAP |
-10% |
-49% |
| Reuters |
-12% |
-31% |
| FXall (Active Trading Segment) |
-7% |
-16% |
| CME |
-9% |
-27% |
| Overall Market (Reuters, EBS, FXall, Hotspot FX) |
-12% |
-39% |
