At the start of the year Gerry Fowler was feeling pressure from management to generate more currency-specific strategies. But as the Aberdeen Standard Investments portfolio manager saw it, opportunities were sparse and limited to an up/down view on the US dollar.

FX markets had been in the doldrums for some time. Implied volatility on widely traded pairs was at record lows, dampening volatility selling strategies and helping create a feedback loop in which spot prices remained range bound