EBS, ICAP’s market-leading electronic FX business, announces today that its flagship EBS Market platform saw its highest total daily trading volume of the year on Friday 31 October 2014. In exceptionally volatile markets, following the Bank of Japan’s announcement to expand its quantitative easing programme, total daily volume on EBS Market was $228bn and overall EBS total daily volume was $250bn, making this EBS’s highest trading day in three years.
On 31 October EBS Market experienced a significant spike in demand in interest on the platform:
- Between 04:40 and 05:00 GMT $18bn was traded
- Between 04:40 and 05:40 GMT $34bn was traded
- Between 04:40 and 07:40 GMT $68bn was traded
FX market volatility has increased meaningfully in the past three months. Seven of EBS Market’s top ten trading days over the past 12 months occurred during this period. On 31 October, EBS Market saw an increase of almost ten percent in the number of active traders compared to the average for October 2014.
Darryl Hooker, Head of EBS Market, said: “During times of high volatility the market recognises that as the primary market for deep and genuine liquidity, EBS Market will give greater certainty of execution. We were delighted to have welcomed a material increase in traders on the platform in the last couple of months. Given the superior experience in terms of access to liquidity and execution on EBS Market, we have seen a flow of new customers signing up and new interest in our platform.”
Gil Mandelzis, CEO of EBS, added: “EBS Market plays a crucial role at the heart of FX market ecology and times like these underscore the importance of lit, public central limit order books. As we see volatility return, EBS’s depth of liquidity and resilience to support these trading conditions, as demonstrated by the superior execution levels for all participants, cements our role as the leading FX marketplace.”