Central Banks
Currenex set to move into new asset class
NEW YORK – Trading technology vendor Currenex is going multi-asset class, according to officials at the company in New York.
Asia to support global growth
LONDON – Asia holds the key to global growth amid a US slowdown, Marios Maratheftis, FX strategist at Standard Chartered in London told delegates at last week's FX Week Europe Congress.
Currenex adds precious metals
NEW YORK – Currenex is expanding its footprint into precious metals with the addition of gold and silver trading.
Rouble hits seven-year peak against dollar
MOSCOW – The rouble hit its highest level against the US dollar for seven years last week, as the soaring price of oil boosted the Russian unit.
Reserve diversification
Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at the Bank of New York in London, suggests a simple, low-cost method to take advantage of any move by the Chinese authorities to diversify
Middle East violence boosts US dollar
Conflict in the Middle East contributed to a surge in the dollar and a big drop in the value of Asian currencies last week.
A simple strangle for EUR/GBP vol
Currency managers can insure against unexpected moves in the EUR/GBP using a simple low-cost method, says Neil Mellor, currency strategist at the Bank of New York in London
EBS adds rand to spot trading
LONDON – Interdealer broker EBS has added the South African rand to its spot matching system in conjunction with South Africa's largest liquidity providing banks.
FX volumes ‘up one fifth’ in past year
LONDON – A surge in active currency management has driven up FX volumes by 20% in the past year, according to London-based research firm ClientKnowledge.
Greenspan and Snow to visit Cfets
BEIJING – Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, and John Snow, treasury secretary, will visit the Shanghai office of the China FX trading system (Cfets) on their visit to China this week.
Central banks increase FX holdings
BEIJING AND WASHINGTON DC – A Chinese official last week highlighted the possibility of a significant move out of US dollar reserves, as the latest IMF figures show central banks have continued to hold faith in the greenback.
Heading for the final USD selling opportunity
Hans-Guenther Redeker, global head of FX strategy at BNP Paribas in London, suggests a way to take advantage of the prospect of near-term dollar strength to protect against the likelihood of longer-term USD weakness.
‘FX markets are unreadable’
Foreign exchange markets are notoriously difficult to predict, so corporates shouldn’t bother, argues Simon Miles (right), currency strategist at Corporate FX. Instead they should focus on deciding how to hedge the risk so they can determine its real…
‘No’ votes lead to record flows
LONDON – The ‘no’ votes on the EU constitutionreferendums last week led to unexpectedvolatility in the currency markets, and the highestvolumes ever seen on some platforms.
Benefiting from yuan revaluation
The Lloyds TSB Financial Markets team suggests how to benefit if the Chinese yuan revalues and Asia follows suit
Chinese whispers cause confusion
BEIJING – Currency markets were thrown into disarray last Wednesday following an inaccurate news report by a Communist-party-backed news agency claiming China would allow the yuan to appreciate.
INR – everything is relative
The INR’s over-extended valuation against the Reserve Bank of India’s REER implicit policy anchor continues. This over-extension is looking anomalous against the continued backdrop of Asian FX selling. Claudio Piron, Asian FX strategist at JP Morgan in…
Asia shies away from dollar bloc
Basel – Asian currencies are not trading as a dollar bloc, said the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in its quarterly review last week.
A broader view than the yuan
While much attention is focused on a likely shift in the value of China’s currency, Ashish Advani (right), director of risk solutions at Travelex in Toronto, points to a way of hedging against the more imminent risk of free-floating Asian currency…
Cutting the cost of dollar calls
With the USD having hit its lowest levels since the first half of January, Steven Englander, chief FX strategist for the Americas at Barclays Capital, suggests a cost-effective way to position for a dollar rebound
Asian ERM debate returns to the fore
HONG KONG -- Calls for an Asian currency regime mirroring the European exchange rate mechanism (ERM) are coming to the fore, as the region’s authorities face mounting pressure to alter their exchange rate policies.
Euro gains status as reserve
FRANFURT – Buying by some of Eastern Europe’s and Africa’s central banks is buoying the euro as the central bankers come to the realisation the currency is here to stay, according to a leading forex fund manager.
Euro role grows, says ECB
The euro is increasingly being used as an international currency and its place in the global markets is becoming ever more important, a European Central Bank (ECB) official told delegates at the FX Week congress in London last week.