Opinion/Wholesale
Why retail FX should be taken seriously
According to research from client strategy firm ClientKnowledge, profits from retail FX traders can be anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion a year.
Cognotec email gives mixed messages
In an email sent out to key clients last week, Cognotec said it is going through yet another corporate restructure. It said the headcount at the company had significantly increased over the past 18 months, doubling its development resources, primarily…
New platforms: ready, steady, go
And it's all systems go, literally. FXMarketSpace is very close to testing in a live environment, with final details being put in place. Meanwhile others, such as FXall's new anonymous trading platform, should have begun piloting by now.
The importance of best execution
The biggest piece of news to come out of last week is the sale of Currenex to State Street for $564 million.
Banks gear up for emerging markets push
The competition for emerging market business is hotting up, with US banks preparing for a push.
Consolidation is the key theme
The theme of consolidation in the brokerage industry continues this year, with Société Générale and Calyon confirming exclusive negotiations to merge their brokerages Fimat and Calyon Financial. But what happened to all that talk about consolidation in…
Weighing up the alternatives
Jeffrey Lins , Executive Director of Quantitative Analysis at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen, evaluates the pitfalls of using maximum drawdown-based performance measures, and points to recent advances that may help to expand opportunities for investment…
Quick, look busy! Here comes Mifid
Chip Lowry , senior managing director of State Street Global Link in Europe, looks at what Mifid will mean for the foreign exchange industry
The mixed blessings of co-operation
Co-operation in the foreign exchange industry has generally tended to bolster the market.
Margin trading – an untapped opportunity
Brian Maccaba , executive chairman of Cognotec, highlights the huge growth in web-based FX margin trading and argues that banks cannot afford to ignore the opportunities that this presents
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
London lords it over continental rivals
London remains the heart and soul of the foreign exchange industry, with its position as the global financial capital of the world confirmed by a report published by International Financial Services, a London-based research firm.
You can judge a book by its cover
Market participants of all shapes have access to a bewildering choice of platforms on which they can transact their FX business. There is a huge financial gap between the multi-billion dollar hedge fund and the hobby investor who wants to trade with a…
Managing exposure to forex volatility
Manuel Deijk in the structured FX team at UBS looks at a selection of quantitative methods applied in the implementation of FX risk management policies
Human touch will always be needed
Markets have been on the move again this week. Comments from retired Fed chairman Alan Greenspan about the US housing market and noise surrounding China's reserve policy ensured that the greenback at last broke through the 1.26–1.28 range that it had…
Old news set to leave China behind
China’s plans to delay the information flow from foreign news agencies by filtering it through Xinhua news agency is worrying, and it is likely to be counterproductive.
Maintain a long Swiss franc exposure
Todd Elmer, currency strategist at Citigroup in New York, predicts an upturn in Swiss franc fortunes, and advises directional trades on EUR/CHF
Anonymity does not always equal profitability
FXall has jumped on the anonymity bandwagon, and the Reuters/CME venture offers another way to access liquidity discretely. But whether these ventures will succeed is debatable.
Automating FX – algorithmic trading in foreign exchange
Interest in algorithmic trading in FX is growing. John Bates, vice-president, Apama Products, Progress Software, discusses the advantages, and analyses the latest market innovations
Trading in the firing line holds back banks
The prospect of facing a firing squad for losing some of the bank’s money would certainly concentrate the minds of the more adventurous prop traders.
One answer to the structural versus cyclical debate
Geoff Kendrick, senior currency strategist at Westpac in London, has developed a systematic way to generate alpha from the structural versus cyclical debate
The Chinese way
A lot has happened in China since its accession to the WTO in 2001. Arnie Papp, general manager for Asia-Pacific at Calypso, explains the effect the changes have had on FX in the region
Electronic FX talent must be rewarded
This week sees the e-FX awards handed out to the best and brightest in the industry. I can't give a sneak preview of the winners as they will be revealed on Tuesday and covered in next week's issue. However, I'd like to share some observations that the…
Harnessing e-FX benefits
FXall's Mark Warms, general manager, Europe, says treasuries should consolidate their trading functions.Platforms can help them do this, but flexibility is needed