Intercontinental Exchange Posts Lower Trading Volumes in November

The Intercontinental Exchange on Wednesday released its trading metrics for the month of November, showing a decline in trading volumes in the Forex sector.

On a month-on-month basis, the volumes fell; but they increased on a year-on-year comparison.

The total average daily volume (ADV) was 42,000 contracts in November, down from 44,000 in October. The ADV for September was 50,000 FX contracts.

ADV for futures and options fell 16 percent from November 2013, though commodity ADV rose 12 percent as compared with 1 percent gain in October. The energy ADV rose 13 percent led by Brent, Other Oil, Gasoil and Natural Gas ADV, which all rose 10 percent, 19 percent, 4 percent and 19 percent respectively from a year earlier.

This is welcome news for a company that is seeking to diversify its asset classes instead of FX, such as stocks and commodities.

Meanwhile, Japanese FX giant MONEX Group reported a 5.5 percent gain in trading volumes in November.

This is surprising considering that most FX firms have reported stagnant or declining volumes in November 2014. MONEX Group reported a 5.5 percent gain to $55.4 billion in November 2014, up from $52.4 billion in October 2014.

This effectively makes November the month with the highest number of trades for MONEX Group since the summer high that saw all firms in the industry post excellent results.

Meanwhile, Jamie Oschefski, the former Head of Accounts and Strategic Partnerships at Quantica Trading, has been appointed as the VP Sales at New York-based algorithmic trading tech firm Rizm. Rizm creates tools for professional analysts and traders.