Currency Trading's 20% Drop Raises Specter of Flash-Crash Future

  • Sudden, disruptive price swings pick up as volumes decline
  • Yen jumped 2.6 percent in less than 3 minutes on BOJ decision
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The world’s biggest financial market has shrunk by 20 percent during the past year and a half.

Currency trading via CME Group Inc., ICAP Plc and Thomson Reuters Corp. -- three of the largest trading platforms -- fell to $538 billion per day last month, from more than $669 billion in September 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The figures show the extent of the slump in a market that this month saw some banks report less client activityBloomberg Terminal, just as the Bank of International Settlements prepares its definitive triennial survey of global volumes.