Trading
Clients switch on to Portware FX
NEW YORK - Portware has seen a 70% increase in clients using Portware FX, its real-time foreign exchange aggregation system, since the start of 2008, according to Harrell Smith, head of product strategy for the firm in New York.
Thomson adds Icap tick data
JERSEY CITY & LONDON - Interdealer broker Icap is making historical tick data for foreign exchange, fixed-income and interest rate products available through Thomson Reuters, in a bid to broaden its client base among algorithmic trading, valuation and…
Out of the frying pan, into the fire...
Analysts at Barclays Capital in London say recent dramatic rate cuts might mean the worst of the financial crisis is behind us, but concern about economic growth is increasing
TMS rises as European banking falls
TMS Brokers took this week's top slot in the one-month rankings by forecasting the euro would be drawn down by turbulence in the eurozone banking sector.
Lehman's Burgess now at ING
LONDON - Ian Burgess, formerly of Lehman Brothers, has joined ING's institutional sales division in London.
Nedbank Capital taps Aleri for liquidity data analysis
JOHANNESBURG - South African investment bank Nedbank Capital plans to implement a liquidity management system (LMS) offered by Chicago-based complex event processing software vendor Aleri next year, to consolidate data on cashflows and liquidity…
WestLB drops RealStream
DÜSSELDORF - WestLB is no longer using Cognotec's RealStream Manager and has signed up to Eurobase's Siena Gateway, in a move to streamline its electronic foreign exchange infrastructure.
'Instividual' investors switch on to FX
One area of the foreign exchange market that appears to be continuing on a healthy growth trajectory is retail FX trading, according to research released last week.
Value managers come up trumps in October
LONDON - Currency managers using the value strategy are likely to have fared well in October, a month described as one of the most volatile in history, according to research by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Forwards spreads start to tighten
LONDON & NEW YORK - Dealers are reporting a retreat in forwards spreads, reflecting marginal improvements in liquidity as Libor eases after weeks of government and central bank action.
StatPro chooses GFI for options data
LONDON - StatPro, a London-based vendor of analytics and data systems for the asset management industry, has signed a contract to use GFI's foreign exchange options data in its pricing and risk management services.
A call to action on electronic pricing
The protracted explosion in bid/ask spreads and implosion in liquidity since mid-September is causing mounting frustration among algorithmic traders.
Strong FX fails to lift CME in Q3
CHICAGO - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) posted record volumes in foreign exchange products in Q3 but suffered a $28 million loss associated with FXMarketSpace, its joint-venture platform with Thomson Reuters.
Investors shun FX-only funds
LONDON - Fund managers are abandoning foreign exchange-only funds in favour of currency overlay programmes, according to research by London-based client strategy firm ClientKnowledge.
Forecasting tricky as markets churn
Extreme volatility in the foreign exchange markets over the past month has provided challenging conditions for forecasting short-term moves, as evident by this week's one-month forecast rankings.
South Korea hits back at foreign media
SEOUL - The South Korean government hit back at foreign media last Wednesday (October 29), claiming Korea is better positioned to withstand the global economic crisis now than it was during the 1997 Asian crisis.
RBS sells e5m note linked to new FX Radar
LONDON - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold its first structured product linked to the new FX Radar Index, an automated index linked to 20 emerging market currencies.
Citi's Sherrard relocates to Asia
LONDON & SINGAPORE - Rodney Sherrard, a foreign exchange options trader for Citi in London, is transferring to the bank's Singapore office to work in correlation trading.
UBS chops 13 in forex
ZURICH - Stephane Treny, global head of foreign exchange corporate sales for UBS, was one of 13 redundancies from the FX team at the Swiss bank's Zurich office last Tuesday (October 28).
StanChart revamps e-pricing
SINGAPORE - Standard Chartered has gone live with a liquidity aggregator developed for its foreign exchange electronic pricing and trading division in Singapore.
MF Global gets new CEO as Davis quits
NEW YORK - Kevin Davis resigned as chief executive of MF Global on October 29 and has been replaced by Bernard Dan, after a turbulent few months for the institutional broker.
Harsh climate suits Aus FX
SYDNEY - Australian foreign exchange dealers expect to continue benefiting from increased deleveraging and client hedging activities seen since September.