Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Japan’s over-the-counter (OTC) forex and binary options markets shrunk by double digits in May, both over the month and year-on-year, according to the data published on Tuesday by the Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ). Exception makes on-exchange forex trading, the volume of which declined insignificantly by a single digit.
The total trading volume generated from OTC forex trading stood at JPY 366 trillion in May, which represents a drop of 12.1% on the month and by 13.7% over the year. On-exchange forex volumes were JPY 3.1 trillion last month, posting a drop of 1.0% from the previous month and 2.5% year-on-year.
Japanese brokers’ combined volume generated from binary options trading fell by a monthly 16.7% to JPY 30.4 billion in May, posting an annual drop of 27.7%.
Forex | Binary Options | ||||||
Trading volume | Number of brokers | Trading volume | Accounts | Number of brokers | |||
Over-The-Counter | On-Exchange | Existing | Active | ||||
Jan | 532,327,200,000,000 | 4,757,300,000,000 | 53 | 62,062,620,972 | 337,932 | 13,703 | 8 |
Feb | 593,970,500,000,000 | 4,855,400,000,000 | 53 | 51,653,882,068 | 339,997 | 13,656 | 8 |
Mar | 439,899,200,000,000 | 3,728,100,000,000 | 53 | 40,356,089,233 | 341,946 | 12,786 | 8 |
Apr | 416,410,800,000,000 | 3,172,800,000,000 | 52 | 36,489,348,439 | 343,455 | 12,225 | 8 |
May | 365,994,800,000,000 | 3,140,700,000,000 | 52 | 30,408,947,057 | 344,396 | 11,880 | 7 |
A total of 52 forex brokers and seven binary brokers filed their May monthly trading metrics with the FFAJ. The brokers that offered binary options trading last month were GMO Click Securities, Traders Securities, IG Securities, FX PRIME by GMO, YJ FX, Hirose FX, and FX Trade Financial. CFTC’s monthly data did not include statistics about binary options broker JFX.
The USD/JPY continued to be the most traded currency pair in Japan, despite posting a double-digit drop in volume. Forex brokers’ combined volume from trading in the currency pair declined by 11.8% on the month to JPY 343 trillion in May, while the volume of trading in binary options on the USD/JPY stood at JPY 15.0 billion, or 15.3% below the previous month’s value.
Some Japanese forex brokers have already posted their monthly trading metrics for last month. GMO Click Securities and FX Prime, both part of GMO Click group, saw their May trading volumes on the fall. GMO Click Securities recorded in May a volume below JPY 100 trillion for the first time this year, posting a monthly drop of 11.2%, while FX Prime faced a drop of 31.7% on the month to JPY 4.8 trillion.
Monex Group, another Japanese brokerage, reported its daily average revenue trades (DARTs), or the daily number of transactions that generate revenue per business day, from global operations fell in May 2016 to of 274,230, which is the third lowest in its history. The broker provided no information on its trading volume.
Meanwhile, the US forex markets also has shrunk, but based on another indicator – retail forex client funds deposited with US-regulated brokers. According to the latest statistics published on Monday by the the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in April brokers’ combined forex client deposits fell below $500 million for the first time since the regulator publishes such data.
Source: FFAJ
