e-Forex Magazine January 2012.
Electronic FX option platforms - transparency, flexibility and liquidity redefine standards
Social Media - helping to facilitate FX workflows across all channels
Carrier Hotels - FX Checks in for co-location services
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'Sovereign downgrade could hit eurozone lenders' was a headline in the Financial Times which I recently read on my flight back from a Bucharest meeting with local traders and representatives from the BNR – the National Bank of Romania. Standard & Poor had warned in this edition that it was looking to downgrade fifteen Eurozone country’s sovereign debt! Having just re-rated 37 global banks a week ago, whereby seventeen of them subsequently became downgraded, this outlook was the next shock to the financial markets in particular to the Eurozone. Such announcements are certainly nurturing volatility in all market segments, including Foreign Exchange. But is there any reason or pattern behind them? ...show more
Lack of clarity about the extent of mandatory regulation for over the counter foreign exchange (OTCFX) derivatives persists but 2012 should bring greater definition and guidance to those in the market. Meanwhile, Richard Willsher reports on how exchanges, clearing houses and service providers are setting their strategies and gearing up their technology for the opportunities that may emerge. ...show more
As a global market operating at almost every waking hour, FX has always been highly attuned to the flow of information, ideas and news. It should then come as no surprise that institutional FX firms and traders are starting to explore the new possibilities that social media communication tools bring. Joe Morgan investigates what these are....show more
In 2011 we saw some innovative moves by banks utilising Social media in FX, and with more of them beginning to see the benefits of Social Forex as a sales & marketing channel, we believe that these efforts deserve major recognition. ...show more
As the FX industry enters into a new era of electronic trading for FX options, Frances Maguire examines the key role that technology is playing in the provision of new and additional services whilst redefining standards in the way these instruments are traded....show more
Analytics are the basis of any trading strategy. This is, of course, an obvious statement but, as Nicholas Pratt reports in this feature, the realisation that a more intelligent approach to the use of analytics leads to a more intelligent trading strategy is increasingly apparent in the FX world. ...show more
As an investor, have you been reluctant to trade cross-border securities due to the costs and complexities involved? As a portfolio manager, have you found it an operational hassle to deal with the FX cover trades? As a fund manager, have you found it difficult to measure the actual performance of your portfolio managers due to the different currencies between the underlying assets and the fund? As a state pension fund, do you balk at the exorbitant post trade FX spreads charged by intermediaries such as custodians?...show more
The results are now in from the buy-side. The 2011 Lab49 FX Platform Survey reveals what single dealer platform users really want from their FX trading platforms....show more
South East Asia’s increasing economic prosperity is driving growth in the region’s foreign exchange trading activity and, as Richard Willsher discovers, the regions electronic FX trading capabilities have accelerated even faster....show more
With trade volumes through single dealer platforms growing faster than multi-dealer platforms, Frances Maguire talks to Joe Locke, Operations Director, and Carl Martin, Banking Products Director, at Eurobase Banking Solutions about the launch of its new electronic trading platform – Siena eTrader evo®....show more
e-Forex talks with Stina Ekberg, Head of e-FX Trading and Distribution at SEB Merchant Bank....show more
Eddie McDaid, Head of Business Development at my-Channels, a leading technology firm specialising in Messaging solutions takes part in the first of the new e-Forex speed interview series....show more
The introduction of centralised clearing for OTC instruments is heralding a major re-engineering of technology. Trading infrastructures are being re-designed to support it and banks are investing in new systems to facilitate improved front to back-office transaction processing and risk management. Systems upgrades are also being undertaken to handle the new margining requirements and collateral management, Frances Maguire explores how all this activity is creating a demand for a new generation of trading and risk management systems, based upon innovative and highly scalable technology architectures, as clearing providers start thinking about how to differentiate their clearing offerings....show more
The need for greater capacity and more efficiency of time to trade, otherwise known as latency, is becoming increasingly important for many FX market participants. Joe Morgan examines why growing numbers of globe-trotting FX trading firms are therefore checking in for co-location services, where specialist service providers’ host traders’ servers as close as possible to a trading platform’s matching engine. ...show more
As the firestorms engulfing financial markets continue to captivate participants and observers alike, the activities of managed network service providers remain, appropriately, largely in the dark. The work of companies specialising in network infrastructure beneath the ground and sea is not likely to make the headlines in the financial or popular press at the moment. But, as Joe Morgan reports in this article, these businesses are at the nexus of the forces driving the development of an increasingly interconnected global financial system, driven in part by the growth of high-speed trading. The fibre optic cabling which links trading hubs together is of vital importance in FX, a global market where traders follow the rising sun to trade on different venues throughout the day....show more
Howard Tolman, Director of Cloud Trading Technologies tackles some questions on the application of Cloud Computing services within the FX trading environment....show more
The world of FX algorithmic trading continues to develop on all fronts. On a technical level the algos are increasingly sophisticated as developers bid to match the market’s appetite for lower latency, better performance and more complex trading strategies. And on a commercial level, providers continue to offer new algo trading services. Nicholas Pratt canvasses a leading technology vendor and two leading FX banks to see what we can expect to see in the algorithmic FX trading space during 2012....show more
Heather McLean discovers that starting up a new electronic foreign exchange brokerage is a task littered with pitfalls, bear traps and electronic fences. However, approaching this entrepreneurial mission well researched means you will be well armed to overcome the problems and take the strategic decisions that lie ahead....show more
Gold-i, a global market leader in trading systems integration, is aiming to revolutionise the industry this year by transforming MetaTrader, the world’s most popular trading platform for FX, into a multi-asset trading platform. In our three step guide below, we outline details of one of the biggest industry developments for 2012....show more
When deciding on the most suitable broker or service, forex traders are faced with a number of considerations. Until recently in the retail e-FX market, these considerations have focused on a number of basic factors such as spreads, platform usability and transaction options. But as homogeny took over, making it harder to distinguish between brokers, traders have developed more sophisticated criteria on which to base their decisions. ...show more
The demand for low latency trading has been a feature of the HFT equities markets for many years to the point where there is little room left to go in terms of seeking the quickest possible executions. Low latency has also become a feature of the institutional FX space and has been present for a number of years. More recently though there has been a growing demand for low latency execution from the retail FX trading space. Nicholas Pratt investigates why high frequency players are now increasingly interested in trading on retail FX platforms. ...show more
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e-Forex talks with Michael Konnaris, CEO of easy-forex, a leading online forex broker with headquarters in Cyprus and representative offices in many other parts of the world....show more
It may have taken a while for retail trading providers to latch on to the social network phenomenon so prevalent nowadays in most other online activities, but now that they have, social trading is taking the retail forex world by storm. Recent statistics from the eToro OpenBook social investment network show that traders not only prefer to carry out their trading activities through the social medium (over 70% of all trades), but that the medium itself is radically changing trading habits and efficacy. A dramatic 20% improvement in overall trader performance figures since the launch of the network, shows that the newly introduced social aspect of trading is not only a much needed injection of fun into the field, but a veritable revolution in the retail FX industry. ...show more
e-Forex talks with Adil Soyfoo and Nathan Halfon, co-founders of FX Fifty Five, a specialist e-FX execution venue....show more
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