In December, Saxo Bank published the trading numbers showing a huge monthly increase in demand for its equities service but a drop in foreign exchange (forex) volume.
The $95.7 billion worth of foreign exchange trading volume was far lower than the previous month’s $99.2 billion, which is a drop of 3.5% monthly. In addition, last month’s daily total volume was $4.2 billion, down from November’s $4.5 billion.
Although a monthly decrease is natural in the financial sector as a cyclical trend, forex demand on the trading platform also decreased significantly yearly. Saxo said it handled $128.1 billion worth of transactions last month, resulting in a yearly decline of up to 25% or more.
Furthermore, the reported FX trading volume for December 2021 was the lowest it had seen all year.
Jump in Equities
Equities demand on Saxo grew by more than 49% over the previous month, compared to forex. Compared with the same period a year ago, volume in equities trading came in at $233 billion, rising by more than 153%.
Despite a 15% drop in demand to $25.6 billion in December, commodities demand remained at $6.8 billion for the rest of the year. Despite a fall in foreign exchange trading, the extra pull from equities demand resulted in an increase of overall monthly volume, which came in at $361.1 billion.
The company’s aggregate monthly volume rose by 23.6% month-over-month and over 42% year-over-year.
Saxo Bank also provides cryptocurrency derivatives to its Australian and Singapore customers. Crypto products are in high demand owing to their $2.5 billion in revenue until October.
