CLS Posts Decline in FX Trading Volumes in August

CLS, for the foreign exchange (forex) industry, has published its trading volumes for the month of August today, revealing a month on month decline.
In particular, the average daily traded volume submitted to CLS during the month of August was $1.649 trillion. When measuring this against the previous month, which recorded a monthly daily average of $1.657 trillion, it is slightly lower by 0.5 per cent.

The total average daily volume can be split into three categories: swap, spot and forward forex trading volumes. by far contributes the most to CLS’ total trading volumes.
Taking a look at the average daily traded volume submitted to CLS for Swap FX, August’s volume was $1.188 trillion. Against the previous month, which is lower by 0.3 per cent. Year on year, last month’s figure also shrunk by 0.8 per cent.
The average daily volume recorded for spot FX in August was $384 billion. Again, this is lower both on a monthly and yearly comparison, falling by 0.5 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively. 
The same pattern has occurred for FX forward trading volume, coming in at $77 billion for the period. This is lower than July’s volume of $80 million by 3.75 per cent. It is also less than the $111 million daily average volume posted in August 2019 by 30.6 per cent.
CLS August Volumes Peaked Amid US Fed Chair Speech
Commenting on the volumes, CLS’s Head of Information Services, Masami Johnstone, said in the statement: “Daily traded volumes in August were flat (-0.5%) versus the previous month, at USD1.65 trillion. This comprised FX swap volumes of USD1.188 trillion (-0.3%), forward volumes of USD77 billion (-3.8%) and spot volumes of USD384 billion (-0.5%). Compared to August 2019, FX swap volumes were slightly down (-0.8%), while forward and spot volumes recorded a decrease of 30.6% and 12.9%, respectively.
“On Thursday 27 August, Fed Chairman Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole conference announcing a move to a flexible average inflation targeting regime coincided with the peak August volume of USD2.28 trillion.”