Trading
Positive factors supporting the pound
Barclays Capital (BarCap) has adjusted its sterling view to align with its position on the greenback, on advice from recent Bank of England hire, Paul Robinson.
Preparing for a return to volatility
Persistently low levels of volatility have made it tough to trade the currency markets since late august. Simon Derrick, head of currency strategy at Bank of New York in London, investigates whether the past few months have been anomalous, and how to…
Relief for traders as volatility returns
LONDON – Last week saw unexpectedly large moves in the dollar/yen and euro/dollar as traders welcomed a pre-Christmas build-up in volatility after a year of flat markets.
ISE prepares FX options launch
NEW YORK – The International Securities Exchange (ISE) has begun publishing the underlying rates for its new ISE FX options, in preparation for launch next year.
Relief for traders as volatility returns
LONDON – Last week saw unexpectedly large moves in the dollar/yen and euro/dollar as traders welcomed a pre-Christmas build-up in volatility after a year of flat markets.
Complacency leads to a hard landing
Going against consensus view, Sharada Selvanathan , currency strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore, advises preparing for a hard landing in the US economy
The carry trade shows best returns
LONDON – Carry trading can still produce positive returns, but trend trading models are losing ground, Citigroup's risk advisory group director, Jessica James told the FX Week Europe Congress.
EBS and Reuters pool resources for BoE
LONDON – Rival brokers EBS and Reuters are pooling resources to launch a new benchmark page for spot FX price fixings, to replace data currently provided by the Bank of England (BoE).
Icap pushes into options
LONDON – Icap plans to launch non-deliverable forwards and develop an electronic FX options trading platform, CEO Michael Spencer told the FX Week annual congress in his keynote address.
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.
Acknowledge the role of central banks
Forecasters need to acknowledge the role currently being played by central banks in maintaining range trading, said Forex Capital Markets' (FXCM) chief strategist, Kathy Lien.
GFT predicts increased volatility
Global Forex Trading (GFT) predicts that market volatility will increase in 2007, but said increased activity is needed to break current range-trading.
UBS triumphs as Citi bounces back
LONDON – UBS retained its top spot in this year's FX Week Best Banks Awards, as Citigroup bounced back to take second spot.
Dresdner joins EBS as prime bank amid rising volumes
LONDON – Dresdner Kleinwort has joined EBS as a prime bank, with the spot broker saying sharp increases in prime volumes demonstrate its ability to withstand challenges from new entrants.
Taking advantage of variance swaps
Loïc Henry, head of structuring at Calyon in Paris, suggests using variance swaps to trade non-directional strategies in an environment of low volatility
Icap sets up Russian service
LONDON & MOSCOW – Icap last month established a rouble rates desk, as the money broker looks to build its capabilities in the rapidly expanding market.
UBS triumphs as Citi bounces back
LONDON – UBS retained its top spot in this year's FX Week Best Banks Awards, as Citigroup bounced back to take second spot.
Flextrade beta-tests MilanFX system
NEW YORK – Trading technology vendor Flextrade has started beta-testing its block FX trading platform MilanFX, it told FX Week . The vendor becomes the first to roll out a block trading venue for foreign exchange and employ a dark pool of liquidity.
Currenex develops Fix spin-off
LONDON – Currenex is launching an open standard Fix-based straight-through processing (STP) protocol for FX, money markets and precious metals this week.
M&A flows – the Aussie angle
Sharon Yeshaya, FX strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York looks at the effect the current M&A cycle will have on the Australian dollar
Banks overconfident on yen – CBA
Most banks are over-bullish on the yen, according to Richard Grace, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Sydney-based senior currency strategist.
Confidence in dollar resilience growing
Bank of America's (BoA) confidence in the greenback retaining value over the past couple of months is starting to spread to other banks.
China bans pricing in offshore NDF market
BEIJING – Chinese officials last week banned local banks from quoting prices in the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in an effort to boost trading onshore, said analysts.
Headwinds are set to hinder the rand
Razia Khan, senior economist at Standard Chartered in London says the fundamentals for the rand are not supportive despite a recent rally