Kabu Sees 31% Decline in December OTC FX Trading

The Japanese brokerage, Kabu on Wednesday published key trading metrics for December, showing a pullback in the demand for both securities and over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange (forex).

The total trading volume with OTC forex instruments came in at 42 billion yen, which is more than 31.6 percent lower than the volume recorded in the previous month. Through the monthly dip looks stark, the platform recorded two of its best months of the year in October and November.

Yearly Demand Surges

But, the latest figure turned out to be significantly higher on a year-over-year basis. In December 2020, the brokerage reported 36 billion yen in volumes, meaning there was a yearly surge of 16.6 percent.

Though the demand for securities came down, it remained marginally lower than the previous month. The monthly trading volume of stocks came in at 26.3 billion yen compared to 26.6 billion yen in the previous month.

The Japanese broker ended the year with more than 1.36 million securities accounts. Though it added 10,870 new accounts in the last month of the year, the pace of fresh client onboarding slowed marginally from the previous month.

However, Kabu is not alone in reporting a dull December as demand in the overall trading industry declined in the month due to the holidays. Other retail and institutional trading venues also reported a similar trend.

As reported, the monthly DARTs of Interactive Brokers declined by 20 percent on December month-over-month. Furthermore, Cboe FX Markets and FXSpotStream saw a 12.2 percent and 16.8 percent monthly drop, respectively, in their December trading volumes.