Foreign exchange volumes for electronic trading jumped 21% to $43 trillion in 2007, below the 36% growth rate recorded for overall forex trading the previous year, according to Greenwich Associates. In its annual report on foreign exchange, 2008 Global Foreign Exchange Research Study, analysts at Greenwich Associates said the growth rate for electronic forex trading volumes may be leveling off.
“Marketwide foreign exchange trading volumes jumped 36% year-over-year, however, causing the total share of forex trading executed electronically on a global basis to shrink from 50% in 2006 to 43% last year,” the report said.
The Greenwich analysts explained that electronic trading is “leaving behind its initial stage of dramatic, across-the-board growth and entering a more mature period in which market participants begin to self-sort into active or infrequent users of electronic trading systems based upon their unique needs and strategies.”
The data are based on interviews with 1,780 users of foreign exchange trading services but do not include interbank transactions, according to Greenwich Associates spokesman Ryan Utsumi.
