Japan saw a decrease in the trading volumes of both retail OTC forex and binary options in November, compared to the previous month and over the year, data published on Monday on the website of the Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ).
The combined trading volume of over-the-counter (OTC) margin forex brokers active in Japan dropped by 20% over the month to JPY 300.7 trillion in November 2015. Over the year, the figure represents a drop of some 48%, since Japan’s OTC forex trading volume was JPY 576.6 trillion in November 2014.
The main reduction factor was a decrease of the trading volume of USD/JPY and emerging market currencies, the FFAJ said, adding that the trading volume of EUR/USD and GBP/USD currency pairs increased.
In comparison, November’s on-exchange OTC forex trading volume on the Tokyo Financial exchange also went down by a monthly 20% to nearly JPY 2.6 trillion.
Open positions on the Japanese OTC retail market exceeded JPY 7.2 trillion, which represents an increase by JPY 463.1 billion, or by 6.8%, from the previous month, when open positions were close to JPY 6.8 trillion. Year-on-year, open positions grew 7%. Long positions went up by 3% over the month to nearly JPY 24 trillion in November, while short positions jumped by a monthly 15% to JPY 20.9 trillion.
Meanwhile, the trading volume of OTC binary options in Japan amounted to JPY 38.2 billion in November, whih is a decline of 14% from the previous month and 31% over the year.
Although the total number of binary options trading accounts increased by 12% on the year to 333,471 at the end of last month, active accounts fell by 10% to 12,799. 
The FFAJ said it received reports for last month from 53 brokers and eight binary options brokers, the same number as in October.
The Japanese forex trading market is among the most dynamic ones in worldwide. Earlier this month, a few Japanese forex brokers published their monthly metrics for November. Monex Group reported a decline of nearly 20% on the month in its trading volumes from global operations to USD 22.6 billion last month. Meanwhile,the November trading volumes of GMO CLICK Securities and FX PRIME, both part of GMO Click Holdings, fell on the month by 22% to JPY 67.4 trillion and by 21% JPY 4.5 trillion, respectively
Source: FFAJ
