e-Forex Magazine January 2003
e-Forex Jan 2003 - FX Liquidity and e-Forex. An issue? STP - the glue that makes electronic trading stick. Broking FX Options Online : Hybrid Model Set to Dominate
e-Forex Jan 2003 - FX Liquidity and e-Forex. An issue? STP - the glue that makes electronic trading stick. Broking FX Options Online : Hybrid Model Set to Dominate
Customers sometimes complain that FX markets lack real Liquidity. Whatever the reasons for this, Heering Ligthart believes that eTrading should increase Liquidity in the market by making it more accessible....show more
As STP is implemented, foreign exchange will be traded more efficiently than ever before. The entire trading process will be streamlined. Indeed, this revolution is already happening. Jack Lemonik outlines how clients define what they require from ST...show more
The Corporate Treasurer faces a number of factors to consider when choosing which electronic FX trading solution is best for them. Jean-Luc Janet highlights some of the key ones....show more
It is clear that the buy-side is trading more and more eFX. Now (encouraged by vocal evangelists of buy-side STP), corporate treasurers are starting to appreciate the benefits of efficiency, accuracy and risk-reduction which follow from deeper and wider technological linkage with their financial service providers. ...show more
While liquidity has decreased over the past few years, the uptake of eFX is not the main culprit says Mark Galant, who traces the impact of electronic trading in shifting liquidity amongst different FX players....show more
Even though some of the same technology that has made online transactions possible also helps to bridge the Information gap, real-time Intelligence is still hard to come by, says Shane Smith....show more
The need for banks to differentiate themselves and their services to their customer base is paramount and the winners in this race will be those who supply better transactional processing efficiency, argues James Trott....show more
Creating a pricing methodology for automated FX trading is a complex undertaking. The idea may seem simple but there are many questions to be answered. Yaacov Heidingsfeld discusses the issues involved....show more
Richard Olsen believes that in the next few years, instantaneous settlement and continuous interest rate payments in addition to other advanced tools will have a major impact on the development of currency trading....show more
Is STP about speed? And if so, how can this be reconciled with the more conservative need for precision that is crucial in many areas? Gert Raeves provides some answers....show more
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Peter Schipper and Justin Vosveld refresh our minds on how the concept of CLS works and now that it is expanding to new customer groups, what benefits a corporate treasurer could expect from joining CLS....show more
The debate in FX Options with respect to electronic trading platforms has focused on whether ownership of a trading platform is desirable from a broker’s perspective, and if so, whether an electronic only or a hybrid broking model is superior. Mike Binns at GFI gives us his opinion....show more
STP is gathering force as a must-have solution. With help from Trema, e-Forex, gathers five representatives from leading fx players to answer questions on STP and their offerings....show more
The existence of a standard description of data and workflow is simply not enough to make it successful argues Mathew Kuppe. The broad adoption of a standard is a measure of its success. He examines a variety of common standard protocols...show more
On 11th of December 2002, a major conference was held at the offices of Shell in London on the TWIST initiative. Tom Buschman tells us about the meeting....show more
Vikas Srivastava Head of FX eCommerce, Citigroup...show more
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Frances Maguire looks at the arguments for introducing a CCP for spot FX and the benefits it could bring....show more
Godfried De Vidts reviews some of the highlights from the recent ACI Congress in Stockholm...show more
Peter Burton discusses a portfolio approach to Best Execution in Foreign Exchange trading....show more
Martin Spurr looks at how the functionality of current Benchmark Execution offerings is being improved....show more
Donal Austin assesses the reasons that Price Engine providers have been better able to design, develop and deliver user friendly and market-aware FX electronic pricing solutions....show more
Steve Godfrey and Gretchen Breiling explain how FX STP can add value as a fully automated component in other transactions....show more
Keith Harris illustrates how treasury organisations have the opportunity to utilise web-based treasury management systems that apply connectivity to streamlining and improving treasury processes....show more
Mark Warms looks at why relationships remain important in FX trading and how clients can use technology to manage their relationships more effectively....show more
Heather McLean talks to Jonathan Butterfield about how CLS Bank is working hard to educate the market about what CLS is and what you can get from it....show more
Doug Gardner and Mark Cipollina discuss several third party CLS connectivity options which are now available....show more
Heather McLean canvasses a selection of industry views on the benefits of Third party CLS services....show more
Jonathan Butterfield describes how CLS has introduced a unique solution that makes CLS settlement benefits available to the fund management community....show more
Adam Sussman looks at why Prime Brokers will need to upgrade their technology to keep pace with the rate of change as the FX market continues to evolve....show more
Kenny McBride talks about e-Trading driving the need for integrated innovation. ...show more
e-Forex talks with Leon Duivenvoorden, Manager Finance and Treasury Operations at Petroplus....show more
the birth of a new era in electronic trading in China....show more
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5 major online FX trading providers discuss the issues....show more
6 leading FX technology vendors tackle questions on this key topic....show more
Transparency versus Liquidity - is there a winner? David Gershon discusses how greater transparency now means everyone can determine an option’s fair price in advance of trading....show more
Andy Webb interviews a selection of leading banks about the functionality of their own online FX Option trading platforms....show more
Michel Everaert explains how APIs free banks to concentrate on providing a tailored service to their clients....show more
Jennifer White outlines why, with the broad range of derivative products on offer, it is important to use all available technological tools to support this complex business. ...show more
Jesper Ronald Petersen Head of Global Flow & Solutions at Danske Bank...show more
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Manfred Wiebogen discusses the likely impact of the MiFID directive which come into operation in November 2007. ...show more
Peter D'Amario examines why FX users who have spurned e-trading in the past decide to give electronic trading a try — or are pressured to do so....show more
Sang Lee outlines why the FX market has witnessed a certain level of convergence across different customer segments. ...show more
As asset managers execute increasing volumes online they are starting to re-engineer their businesses models around growing their business through eFX. Frances Maguire reports....show more
Paul Ronan focuses on the technological impact associated with entering the retail FX market, and what banks should be doing to overcome the challenges involved....show more
Jack Lemonik and Chip Lowry provide an overview of FIX 5.0 Foreign Exchange enhancements....show more
Frances Maguire asks if the benefits of e-FX are still being held up by constraints in trading infrastructure and technology bottlenecks?...show more
Over the last five years, many FX banks have discovered that they can make more money with less risk by outsourcing market-making. Justyn Trenner explains why we are now ready for a new stage in this evolving process....show more
Steve Bird and Damien McAdam look at how real-time FX trading is currently defined and examine how close we actually are to achieving it....show more
Many describe latency as an unseen enemy that relentlessly nibbles away at profits. Like the cold and flu viruses that wreak havoc in the winter months, we know latency is there and we hope that it doesn’t make us sick. ...show more
Ary Khatchikian and Harrell Smith Ary Khatchikian, president and chief technology officer, Portware and Harrell Smith, co-head of trading product strategy, Portware...show more
The recent growth of FX Prime Brokerage has been extraordinary and technology has had a central role in facilitating this. e-Forex invites John Colasanti, Head of Americas, FX Prime Brokerage sales at Citi, Ed Pla, Global Head of FX Prime Services at UBS, Marek Robertson, Head of FX Liquidity Solutions at Barclays Capital and Brian Duff, Head of Prime Brokerage, North America at RBS Greenwich Capital to discuss some of the key drivers and issues associated with this expanding industry....show more
Heather McLean interviews major technology vendors and FX buy-side and sell-side players in the country....show more
With Bjorn Lundvall, head of e-commerce at Handelsbanken Capital Markets, Ruth Mackaman, head of e-FX Marketing and Product Development at Brown Brothers Harriman, Tom Roche, Global head of FX e-commerce at Standard Chartered Bank, Matt Thomas, Head of Prime Solutions, North America at RBS Global Banking & Markets, Stephane Malrait, Head of e-commerce Europe and Asia, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking and Marco Pelizzoli, Head of FX Sales (Europe) Bank of America....show more
With Philip Brittan, global FX business manager at Bloomberg L.P....show more
Nicholas Pratt looks at why the pace of technology innovation in the FX market may change as a result of the emergence of online multi-bank portals, a booming retail market, more high frequency trading and a general desire for low latency transactions. ...show more
Chris Donnan explains why many vendors have begun to focus on what event processing has to offer for FX trading participants. ...show more
Nicholas Pratt investigates what technical and technology issues are involved in developing and deploying MRN for Algorithmic FX trading. ...show more
Larry Levy interviews Matthew Klein Founder and CEO of the trading systems portal Collective2.com...show more
Larry Levy looks at how the arrival of QuoteTrader, an order entry, quotes and charting package marks the arrival of an essentially new type of “uber software†for the financial markets....show more
Steve Oppenheimer and Thomas Parry outline how interest in automated trading models and algorithmic execution strategies for the foreign exchange market has grown significantly....show more
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By Donald Finucane, Vice President of Product Management and OTC Data Services, Interactive Data Real-Time Services...show more
The crisis came and the crisis went and FX kept on functioning well. Even at the peak of a once in a century crisis, it carried on performing. More astonishing, it shows increased resilience and keeps on attracting new market players. ...show more
The market environment and events over the last two years have brought regulatory concerns around the world's financial services into the spotlight. There is more scrutiny over the general architecture of the market than before the credit crisis. The regulatory concerns around FX have yet to move beyond political rhetoric into hard business practicalities. At the moment FX feels hard done by. The industry sees itself as having ridden the credit crisis with a robust infrastructure and a self-regulated concern that combines STP efficiencies with broader concerns for systemic risk as part of the natural evolution of the business model....show more
Global foreign exchange markets continued their migration to electronic execution last year as e-forex trading volumes increased amid a decline in overall FX trading activity. ...show more
The CLS Aggregation Service, jointly built by CLS Group and Traiana, an ICAP company, went live in January, providing trade aggregation services to participants active in the over-the-counter FX market. Frances Maguire explores how the service is heralding a new chapter in operational risk reduction and banking industry collaboration....show more
Banks and corporates have long relied upon strong relationships in FX where pricing and services are built around the size and type of the order flow. However, while the growing use of electronic over voice trading for vanilla transactions has freed up banking staff to focus on the higher value, more complex deals and the automation brought by straight through processing have lowered costs and brought greater efficiency, it means there is less daily contact. ...show more
While post-trade solutions might not be considered to be at the sexy end of the FX trading spectrum and the inter-bank foreign exchange STP piece might be largely “job done” with recent initiatives such as from CLS and others, possibilities to further streamline the post-trade FX space lie largely amongst corporates and Tier3-4 entities. Roger Aitken examines some of the issues....show more
High frequency trading is often referred to as an arms race. While this image evokes all the machismo traits of the capital markets, it also suggests there is a huge amount of overspending on unnecessary tools - after all, what's the point in being able to blow the world up five times over? The pursuit of ultra-low latency is one area of high frequency trading where such spending has been questioned. Of course it's important to have an efficient and timely trading process but how many milliseconds do you really need to shave off that execution time? Exactly how close to the point of execution do you need to co-locate your servers? And what happens when everyone ends up with the same 0.0000001 milliseconds latency in the end?...show more
Jon Vollemaere takes time out from tweeting and throwing sheep to talk about LetstalkFX.com, a new portal for the FX Market....show more
As the FX market continues to grow in volume and in participants, it is becoming increasingly competitive on the trading side and much harder to derive the same level of profit as in the past. As a result, the financial world is facing pressure to decrease the cost of processing transactions. There has never been a more appropriate time to highlight the importance in ever higher volume back-offices of the need to streamline operations and maintain an efficient Exceptions Management process....show more
There is always room for improvement. This maxim is evident in some areas more than others, particularly in the capital markets industry where the financial crisis exposed the need for some collective pulling up of socks in areas such as risk management, regulation and governance. On the trading side, the pursuit of continual improvement has been much more apparent. Resources may be restricted somewhat due to the current market conditions but, at least in the FX market, firms are looking to harness more intelligent algorithms to enable superior order management and execution and to take their FX algorithmic trading capability to the next level. ...show more
To buy or not to buy. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous vendor hype or to take arms against a sea of troubles by building an FX algorithmic trading system with your own in-house resources. Ay, there's the rub. Nicholas Pratt investigates....show more
The events of the past 18 months have put credit firmly in the spotlight, giving rise to a new round of product innovation within the FX Prime Brokerage space. Frances Maguire explores how it has also raised the ante on improving customer service levels amongst the leading providers....show more
January 13, 2010, is a date that many of us in the world of Forex regulation will not soon forget. On that day, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTCâ€), after almost two years of deliberation, proposed a set of regulations that created a tsunami of outcry in the retail foreign exchange market. These long-awaited rules were a product of the 2008 Farm Bill that intended to require registration of US introducing brokers, commodity trading advisors and commodity pool operators. Instead, these 192 pages of densely-worded legislation created an international uproar due to the CFTC’s efforts to curtail leverage limits to historic lows....show more
With continued volume growth in retail foreign exchange (FX) trading showing little sign of abating, banks and brokerages increasingly have to deploy and ramp up cutting-edge margin trading solutions to efficiently manage their retail FX customer positions, retain and win new business and stay on top. Roger Aitken canvasses leading margin FX vendors to gauge the current state of play....show more
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Global regulation of the financial services industry is a hot topic. Following recent developments and disasters in the economies of Europe and the US, the eyes of everyone, from those directly involved in the markets, to Joe Bloggs on the street, are focused on who oversees what, why and how. Heather McLean discovers why the foreign exchange brokerage market is subject to increasing scrutiny and new rules....show more
Forex ECN platforms sound in theory like the ultimate utopian environment for trading. They can provide a place where orders are matched in real time in a collective bubble of liquidity provided by each of the market’s participants. However, as Heather McLean discovers, there is more to the world of the ECN than meets the eye. ...show more
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With the advent of Apple's iPhone, the entire mobile industry changed. From having mobile handsets to make calls on and send text messages, users were able to use their mobile device to access the internet, download applications for both work and play, and discover new ways of doing business and staying in touch with each other. Communication has entered a new era thanks to Apple's development, as every other major handset manufacturer quickly followed suit and began developing new ranges of Smartphones and launching application stores, while network carriers bundled data packages onto voice and text tariffs as end users became more familiar with the mobile web....show more
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The Internet has provided the means for an increasing multitude of people to trade the forex market. In addition to facilitating their ability to trade foreign exchange, the Internet has also made possible a growing variety of automated forex trading system and forex signal generation software programs. ...show more
Last time I drew your attention to ACI’s update of The Model Code – formulating a new benchmark of FX Best Practices. At its Executive Board meeting on September 4th in Paris, the Committee for Professionalism published the final version of the International Code of Conduct and Practice for the Financial Markets. This version will now become merchandised and distributed to relevant authorities to recall the association’s initiatives in the OTC markets for decades. ...show more
Incoming regulations will add a wholly new layer of complexity to the FX back office. Frances Maguire talks to firms about the challenges ahead and what is being done now to prepare....show more
This year CME Group celebrates 40 years of trading financial futures beginning with foreign currency contracts in 1972. It has the largest regulated marketplace in the world for FX with US$121 billion dollars traded in average daily volume with US$250 billion of open interest residing at the CME Group Clearing House with growth rates over the last five to six years for listed FX that has significantly outperformed the broader OTC FX market. Derek Sammann, global head of FX & interest rate products at the CME Group speaks to e-Forex about the firm’s plans to deliver expanded FX trading and clearing services....show more
The new regulatory environment looks set to shape the future of FX prime brokerage as well as open up the services to a wider audience. Frances Maguire talks to providers about how the FXPB model is evolving and how they are preparing for new growth....show more
In July this year Deutsche Bank unveiled its next generation FX trading platform on Autobahn. Frances Maguire talks to Ian O’Flaherty, Global Head of FX eSales at Deutsche Bank, about what this means for the bank....show more
It is somewhat against expectation that the value proposition of single dealer platforms (SDPs) in the FX market continues to strengthen and as Nicholas Pratt reports, they are now considered the prime relationship channel for increasing numbers of FX providers. ...show more
Liquidity aggregation has been an increasingly prominent feature of the FX market in recent years, to the extent that a general consensus has emerged among traders that aggregation services can not only alleviate the visual burden of trying to watch five screens simultaneously but also have a positive impact on the quality of trade execution – something that has been extolled by the providers of these services for some time now, as Nicholas Pratt discovers. ...show more
Philippe Savoy, Head of eFX Sales at RBC Capital Markets talks to e-Forex about RBC’s newly enhanced FX trading platform and the continued evolution of e-FX....show more
Electronic foreign exchange trading made a slow start in the Middle East. Take up is now well advanced in some sectors and some countries, though a lack of infrastructure, varying degrees of regulation and local civil and political disturbances paint a mixed picture across the region as a whole....show more
With acquisitions and new launches, the FX ECN market is abuzz with activity. Nicholas Pratt examines the developments and what factors will decide the fates of the various players, new and old....show more
As increased adoption of algorithmic and high-speed trading strategies continue to turbo-charge the FX landscape, Dan Barnes explores how FX trading has become very time and latency sensitive, multiplying the challenge of tracking market activity and the cost of doing business. ...show more
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With Alfred Eskandar, CEO of Portware, a leading developer of broker-neutral, automated trading solutions for global equities, futures, options and FX....show more
Foreign exchange may be almost as old as commerce itself, dating back to the days when commodities were sold off the backs of camels, but widely accessible FX-dedicated execution algorithms are a surprisingly recent innovation. As William Essex discovers they go back just five years....show more
Olivier Virzi, Chief Operating Officer of Olfa Trade, talks to e-Forex about some of the key features of his company’s new ECN platform, SeamlessFX and global order management system....show more
Heather McLean explores why Binary Forex Options are gaining in usage amongst retail traders and investors and how the inclusion of these instruments can help FX brokers to differentiate their e-trading products and services ...show more
TMS Brokers is one of the leading brokers in Poland. We asked their CEO, Mariusz Potaczala for his thoughts on the use of and demand for Binary Forex Options....show more
e-Forex talks with Paul Belogour, CEO of Boston UniSoft Technologies, the home of UniTrader (UT)....show more
Life for FX brokers is being revolutionised. Direct Market Access (DMA), Electronic Communications Networks (ECN), and Straight Through Processing (STP) are now having a major impact on brokerage operations and becoming the number one choice for increasing numbers of firms operating in the Retail FX market. As Heather McLean discovers, brokers need no longer be exposed to the same high levels of risk that being a market maker involved and profits are able to be increased as blood pressure decreases in this exciting electronic world....show more
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Sucden Financial’s e-FX Division has a global client base, grown primarily through client recommendations. With a thorough understanding of how to give retail brokers a competitive edge, Sucden Financial’s Head of e-FX Business Development, Jonathan Brewer is ideally placed to offer advice on key areas to consider when selecting an FX prime broker....show more
This month, trading systems integrator, Gold-i is celebrating four years of being in business. Tom Higgins, Gold-i’s CEO, outlines how the company has grown from a start-up UK business to a global market leader....show more
As FX volumes continue their stratospheric rise, an increasing number of brokers and other financial firms are exploring different methods for dealing with liquidity sourcing and distribution. Prime of Prime Brokerages or “PoPs†is an increasingly popular option for retail brokers looking to effectively manage the problems brought about by spiralling volumes, with a long term view to reaping their maximum benefits. But what, exactly, can be accomplished through the use of PoP, and how does the broker decide on which PoP service is most suited to their business requirements? TopFX makes the case for PoPs. ...show more
To trade FX more fairly without the threat of a broker making money from trading losses as well as gains, increasing numbers of retail traders are turning to the wonderful world of Non Dealing Desk (NDD) execution, Direct Market Access (DMA), straight through processing (STP) and electronic communications networks (ECNs). Heather McLean explores these terms in more detail and how they can facilitate more efficient trading and remove major conflicts of interest. ...show more
e-Forex talks with Stavros Hadjikyriacou, CEO of TradingForex.com, an STP broker that aims to offer the best possible trading conditions for all forex traders....show more
e-Forex talks with Christopher Cruden, CEO of Insch Capital Management SA, a leading alternative investment manager based in Lugano, Switzerland....show more
e-Forex talks with James Watson, the Managing Director of ADS Securities London Ltd....show more
Yu Chung Leong Forex dealer at Phillip Futures...show more
Simon Smith Chief Economist at FxPro...show more
Peter Rosenstreich Head of Market Strategy at Swissquote...show more
Noureldeen Al Hammoury Chief Market Strategist at ADS Securities...show more
Jameel Ahmad Chief Market Analyst at FXTM...show more
Some might say that FXWeek had put in a bit more effort to this year’s Asia conference compared to last - and it paid off....show more
“Evaluating the first 100 days of the new Indian government†City of London & Chatham House panel discussion London 16 September 2014 - Tallow Chandlers’ Hall...show more
I had the great honour of sharing a ride from the airport to the conference hotel with Galen Stops, Editor of PnL – but about an hour into the journey it was apparent that Driver 530 was lost, and after sharing our best taxi ride stories from around the world – we were now a bit bored and quite keen to actually arrive at said hotel....show more
In December, FX consultant Shift Forex held the first of its popular FXIC events in Asia. FXIC Shanghai brought approximately 300 local brokers and bankers together with representatives from leading offshore solutions providers and brokers for two days of panel discussions and networking opportunities at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on the Bund....show more
The fines have been levied, compliance officers hired, and outside counsel engaged. Has anyone counted the total cost? The FCA has blown their referee’s whistle, and the whistle has blown to start the new round of market activity, with a tighter oversight of standards. The banks who have been paying attention to culture, have trained their staff and maintained controls, have fared relatively better. They have certainly picked up business. But is that it, now? Job done?...show more
Adam Cooper Chairman, FXPA; Senior Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer of Citadel LLC...show more
The market for Foreign Exchange (FX) is the largest and most liquid financial market. The FX market plays an important role in facilitating global trade and enabling cross-border payments, along with being an asset class that is widely used for hedging and carrying out speculative trades....show more
Bitcoin is a story that wants to be written. There’s always something happening, and almost all the main characters are available for interview. Bitcoin is never boring, nor predictable. Just this morning (in late November 2014), for example, the rumour reached this laptop that Satoshi Nakamoto, the possibly pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, might have been working for the US National Security Agency all along. Within the past month, a former SEC chairman, Arthur Levitt, has signed up as an adviser to two Bitcoin companies; a founding director of the Bitcoin Foundation, John Matonis, has resigned; and the FBI has shut down the Silk Road 2.0 online black market. The price of a single bitcoin hit its low for the calendar year, USD326, on 4th November (source: blockchain.info) and bumped up to USD430 ten days later....show more
Like it or loathe it, social media is here to stay. And contrary to popular belief, social networks are not just about obsessive “Beliebers†or narcissistic “Selfiesâ€. We now see influential politicians through to journalists (often posting scoops) and well followed investors and traders sharing the stage. This trend has even extended to regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which now allows corporates to disseminate material non-public information through social networks due to “appreciating the value and prevalence of social media channels in contemporary market communicationsâ€....show more
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) is one of the UAE’s largest banks with operations in 18 countries. It has been ranked among the world’s 50 safest banks and the safest bank in the Emerging Markets. The Bank has an extensive branch network in the UAE. David Wilkins, Executive Director of E-Commerce at NBAD’s Global Markets, who is based in Abu Dhabi, tells us more about the development of the bank's new e-commerce platform which will place it among the very few specialist regional banks to have developed its own solution and thus be in a position to service Dirham currency demand on a global basis. ...show more
e-Forex talks with James Banister, CEO of FXecosystem, a leading provider of outsourced connectivity services for the FX market....show more
Electronic trading across Asia continues to become more widespread and is increasing rapidly by volume. But, as Richard Willsher discovers, the countries and customers of the Asian theatre are so varied that it would be a mistake to see it as a single market where one size fits all. ...show more
Much has been made of the rapid growth China has undergone recently, with the country now considered an economic powerhouse, second only to the United States. Alongside this unprecedented growth has been a parallel rise in the retail forex industry, with more investors in China than ever before interested in managing their own wealth through online forex trading. Though there have been some indications of the Chinese economy slowing down in recent months, the country remains one of the highest performing economies in the world, and the investment power of the Chinese population should not be underestimated....show more
Chinese renminbi is increasingly being traded outside mainland China as authorities gradually loosen controls over the currency. Gary Lin, head of foreign exchange Hong Kong at Brown Brothers Harriman, talks to e-Forex about the growth of the CNH market....show more
The growth of Asian FX markets is seeing more interest from international FX providers in third party services to connect to these markets. Nicholas Pratt looks at the issues involved....show more
The phenomenal growth in cloud based service delivery is changing essential data centre requirements. These cloud services require a physical infrastructure: a safe and secure environment from which the business critical servers and hard drives that contain the applications and data can operate. They require fast, uninterrupted data connections, a totally secure and reliable power supply and buildings that offer the highest possible levels of security....show more
e-Forex talks with Chris Leaver, COO of DealHub about the launch of the company’s new modular eFX platform DealHub RefleX....show more
Use of mobile devices is standard practice nowadays amongst traders in the retail FX sector, and it has been for several years. The ability to literally not only keep a finger on the pulse of the market from wherever you are, but to execute trades from anywhere, is increasingly taken for granted. Now, use of this “on-the-go†functionality is beginning to spread to the institutional markets as well and, as Heather McLean discovers, although take up of mobile communication applications has so far been far more cautious than that of the retail market, there are signs that this hesitancy is changing....show more
ISAM, the alternative asset manager, has recently announced the launch of IS Prime, its new foreign exchange brokerage service. e-Forex caught up with Jonathan Brewer, Managing Partner of IS Prime and asked him to tell us more about the venture....show more
Peter Durkan CTO of Lucera Financial Infrastructures...show more
There are enormous advantages available for FX trading firms that are able to capture and analyse the universe of available data, but, as Dan Barnes reports, getting to grips with the massive wealth of information that’s out there is a considerable technical challenge....show more
CFH Clearing is one of the most respected and reputable liquidity venues and Prime of Prime clearing providers in the world. Headquartered in London, the firm focuses on helping financial institutions to grow their businesses – to be more profitable and operate more effectively. ...show more
Caroline Henshaw discovers more about, how, in the competitive world of forex today, more and more hard-pressed brokers are choosing to concentrate their resources on areas where they can add value and outsourcing the rest to sophisticated white label service providers that can not only help start-ups enter the market but enhance existing businesses....show more
Tom Higgins, a former Chief Technology Officer in the City, London, set up Gold-i six years ago, having spotted a gap in the market for serious expertise in retail FX trading technology for MT4 brokers. As CEO, he has grown the organisation into a global market leader by focusing on innovative products and reliable services which help brokers to trade more profitably and manage their risk more effectively. He is one of the world’s leading experts in MT4, thanks to his technical expertise and experience gained from working with the platform over many years. ...show more
With technology advancing at a rapid pace, it has never been easier for retail forex brokers to run their businesses more efficiently. Using cutting edge solutions to get more out of their liquidity providers and their trading platforms, brokers are not just able to survive in tough market conditions and comply with ever more stringent regulations, but they can capture new business opportunities and prosper as well. Heather McLean investigates....show more
e-Forex talks with Akram Majed, CEO of Hybrid Solutions about VertexFX Trader...show more
Samuel J. Rae gives us an overview of the ups and downs he has experienced with his trading strategies over the last three months and the steps he takes to maintain a positive risk reward ratio....show more
Formed in 2008, International Standard Asset Management (ISAM) is an alternative investment manager specialising in systematic investing. The management team has amassed over 150 years of combined experience within the quantitative alternative investment space. ISAM has deep experience in institutional alternative asset management and trend following strategies in particular. ...show more
For the fourth consecutive year, CFH Clearing has been named Best Liquidity Provider at the Finance Magnates Awards 2017. ...show more
Also at the Finance Magnates Awards 2017, Gold-i was named Best Cryptocurrency Solution Provider. ...show more
The Eurozone has come a long way from its early days of crisis and its economy has strengthened in almost all countries. For instance, the economic momentum is accelerating at a pace not seen since November 2011. This is despite the fact we have seen enormous amount of political unrest and investors’ confidence wobbled several times over this period. ...show more
December has been a ‘hot’ month for the pound with volatility directly linked to progress in the Brexit negotiations. Every time the headlines reported a positive development the British currency rallied only to retreat again when new obstacles came to light. The price action was capped within a narrow range between 1.33 and 1.3550, with the quick changes of direction making investors wonder whether this is a market to make profits, or one which is better to better stay away from....show more
Contrary to 2016, 2017 has been worrisome for bond investors as the steady flattening of the yield curve offers little returns, while the narrowing spread between short and long term Treasuries seems to agonise many analysts too with their 2018 outlooks; a heavy unwavering concern since the 30-10 Year US Yield Spread plummeted to 0.38% only recently, a 2007 record low....show more
When I was kindly asked to write this article I knew what to write but not necessarily the graphic to accompany it....show more
Looking back, 2017 will be seen as a watershed year for the FX market. After a year of deliberation, the FX Global Code (“the Codeâ€) was published on May 25th and a new Global FX Committee (GFXC) was formed in order to promote and maintain the Code, putting standards and principles into the spot FX market for the first time on a truly global scale. ...show more
When e-Forex interviewed John Quayle, Head of FX Algo Execution, NatWest Markets, to learn about the scope and scale of its Agile Markets platform, it quickly became clear that this state-of-the-art, single dealer offering addressed the complete waterfront of NatWest Markets’ customers’ FX needs from pre- to post-trade. Its range of functionality, its flexibility and future-proofed advanced technology marks it out as a likely significant feature in the e-FX landscape for some time to come. This is what we learned....show more
If best execution is the goal, then helping prove it is the mandate of TCA providers. And for FX markets, measuring execution performance is an activity that has yet to mature even as technology delivers more sophisticated tools. Anna Reitman investigates....show more
Nicholas Pratt explores why Institutional FX ECNs are appealing to increasing numbers of trading firms many of whom value anonymity, low-latency and the ability to use special order types....show more
The Solid FX ECN launched eight years ago in the Netherlands and was founded by Diego and José Baptista, two brothers with a background in FX and equity trading....show more
FCA regulated IS Prime is renowned for its breadth of services. In addition to being one of the fastest growing and most successful Prime of Prime brokerages, the firm also provides multi-asset execution across Tier 1 aggregated liquidity venues and has a highly reputable Agency Execution business which offers a compelling service to institutional clients. e-Forex talks to Chris Twort, who heads up IS Prime’s Agency Execution business, to find out more....show more
e-Forex talks with David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange, about proving the exchange execution model as a better, more transparent and fair alternative to trade FX....show more
Founded in 2015 with the audacious vision of re-engineering post-trade FX using distributed ledger technology, Cobalt has partnered with key participants including Citi, XTX Markets and Citadel. As the company prepares to launch its service in the coming months, e-Forex talks to co-founder and chief executive Andy Coyne about Cobalt’s journey so far and its ambitions for the future....show more
Launched by FX industry veteran David Rutter, R3 now operates in nine countries with 140 staff and is aiming to re-build the operating system for the financial services industry through a series of partnerships. e-Forex talks to head of external affairs Charley Cooper about the strengths of R3’s Corda platform and the potential of distributed ledger technology in FX and beyond....show more
In a recent edition of CIOReview, the publishers presented a list of the “20 Most Promising Blockchain Technology Solution Providers – 2017.†Included in the list was OTC Exchange Network. This is what the magazine had to say about them....show more
William Essex explores whether or not blockchain-based tokenised liquidity platforms will justify the “hype†and disrupt the traditional retail FX-trading model....show more
In this our first article exploring the concepts behind Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies, Simon Taylor, Co-Founder and Blockchain Lead at 11:FS, focuses on Smart Contracts....show more
e-Forex talks with Ramy Soliman, CEO, Stater Global Markets...show more
Electronic FX trading in Australasia is adapting and changing fast. The drivers for this are both local and global and insistent demands from both institutional and corporate buy-side clients are principal factors reports Richard Willsher. ...show more
New Client Money Reporting Rules coming into effect next year, may boost confidence among Australian retail FX traders....show more
With David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies...show more
The FX market has always dealt with fragmentation and complexity but, as Frances Faulds asks, in order to modernise, does the industry need a wholly new model?...show more
Playtech Plc’s acquisition of CFH Clearing and Alpha Capital Markets has resulted in the biggest and most ambitious consolidation to have taken place in the retail FX industry. The strength of Playtech’s financial division, TradeTech Group, is unparalleled in the sector. Its B2B solutions include multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services, liquidity and risk management tools in addition to the division’s proprietary trading platform, CRM and back office systems, risk management and dealing services. e-Forex talks to senior representatives from across the organisation to find out how TradeTech is transforming the client experience....show more
The rapid evolution of the FX space has continued unabated over the past year while demand for cutting edge trading technology remains strong. In turn, the White Labelling model has undergone some profound changes to keep up with the pace of change – even branching out into new services, asset classes and geographies. Nicola Tavendale writes....show more
Joe Morgan reports on how increasing levels of disposable income and a culture of speculation is spurring exponential demand for retail FX trading services across Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets....show more
Having been crowned Best Cryptocurrency Service Provider at the Finance Magnates awards, Gold-i is leading the way in helping brokers worldwide to offer cryptocurrencies to their clients. e-Forex talks to Gold-i’s CEO, Tom Higgins about the ‘cryptocraze.’...show more
The harsh reality is, that in the absence of good liquidity, markets will be far from efficient. The client experience will be poor and counterparties are going to be working even harder to find profitability. ...show more
Everyone understands and is aware that the retail FX business in China is 99% conducted via the IB. The majority of brokers provide all the necessary tools, features, products, rebates, commissions, marketing camp’s, gifts, etc., oriented to attract, keep and satisfy their IBs. Their entire business model is based around IBs. For example at BMFN we have over 10,000 IBs and we have developed all the tools and automated them in order to assist our IB partners....show more
Reaching natural liquidity when trading EM currency pairs requires a connectivity provider that has the resilience and reach to provide access regardless of local environment as Dan Barnes discovers....show more
Blockchain around the world...show more
Inflation expectations have been falling in many countries around the world this year. Gold is often viewed as hedge against rising inflation. Does the fact that people expect inflation to be lower from now on mean that gold can’t go any higher from here?...show more
In the first quarter of 2019 I expected the Dollar to turn lower against its major peers. Many factors were taken into consideration back then, including weaker economic prospects, dovish Federal Reserve, end of fund repatriation by US firms, and widening twin deficit. However, none of these factors were enough to end the King Dollar’s rally....show more
Q4 has now officially began in the wake of a new Fed rate cut. In the previous article, we were leading up to the FED’s September rate decision. The FED rate currently stands at 2.00%, although the recent manufacturing data coming out of the USA shows a lack of growth missing its expectations; the figures released for September are the lowest in the past decade. ...show more
In October, Japan witnessed a transformation of price lists as a result of the 10% consumption tax increase. After several delays, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe implemented the new tax bracket. The only way to raise funds to improve the country’s ballooning social welfare costs. ...show more
FX is a dealer market where common information is not readily (if at all) available. Liquidity providers (LPs) have private information about their flow and hedging strategies and Liquidity consumers (LCs or Clients) know their flow and tend to keep the whole size of the flow secret from each individual LPs.  At the same time most trading (off the main ECNs) happens on a “disclosed†basis where Liquidity Providers knows the Clients identity before trading. ...show more
Following the conclusion of Sibos in London, the global capital for the foreign exchange (FX) market, Curtis Pfeiffer, Chief Business Officer at Pragma, explores how automation is helping corporate treasurers manage their exposures and ensure alignment with best execution practices....show more
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is not groundbreaking - computer scientists have studied it for decades. Over the past five years, however, the use of AI has exploded across a number of industries. Although it feels like the topic is oft discussed in the financial press, there is a fair amount of misunderstanding surrounding what AI really is and how to apply it to financial markets....show more
The winds of change have begun to blow in the world of FX Swaps, and as a result it’s becoming increasingly apparent that knowledge in the form of accurate market data truly is power. ...show more
SquaredDirect is a brokerage firm that is working hard to be different. It brings together a wealth of experience and commercial expertise to offer a range of innovative products and services. The company has built a highly experienced management team that is looking to take a new approach to providing top class international financial trading solutions. e-Forex spoke with CEO, Youssef Barakat, to learn more about his endeavours....show more
Like with other asset classes, FX trading has become more electronic, and this has resulted in more data across more venues that needs to be processed faster and with a high degree of accuracy. Simultaneously, there is more pressure on traders to cut costs, yet improve execution quality. Algorithmic trading is a great tool to meet these seemingly opposing objectives. ...show more
The title of this piece is short and straight forward, but accomplishing it in today’s nascent crypto-asset ecosystem is clearly not as easy as accessing other more traditional asset classes. That’s precisely why this is an opportunity, both from a business perspective as well as from the perspective of market innovation....show more
Arguably, reference data is one of the most misunderstood terms in business. Without fully understanding exactly what reference data is, its importance is difficult to realize or fully value, and could lead to the inefficient or faulty implementation of business processes....show more
Spotex recently launched Periscopeâ„¢ Multilevel Credit-Margin Manager as well as new dedicated broker liquidity hubs. Having just introduced two new products, we asked John Miesner, Senior Managing Director of the firm, to tell us more about them....show more
With every passing day a greater volume of data is captured globally. The value of this growing source of intelligence varies from industry to industry, but within financial markets the worth of good quality price data is far above rubies. ...show more
While the growth of FX in Asia has been anticipated for some time, the recent BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey has highlighted that Asia is the engine for the global economy and has been the only region with significant levels of growth in recent years with FX turnover in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore larger than the US for the first time since the survey began....show more
An interview with Han Tan, Market Analyst at FXTM - Han, can you please tell us a little about yourself and your role at FXTM? I joined FXTM as Market Analyst after working for a number of national business broadcasters, including Bloomberg TV Malaysia and BFM. As a financial presenter, I was able to gain sound knowledge of both the currency and the commodities markets....show more
Providing pricing in the world’s most liquid market is a more competitive business than ever before – and brokers must ensure their customers have access to only the best quality liquidity from the most trusted counterparties, says Siju Daniel, Chief Commercial Officer - FXCM Group. ...show more
Mark Suter, executive chairman and co-founder of Digital Vega, explores what ways the electronic FX option platform and product space is likely to evolve over the next few years and the factors and issues that will influence this....show more
FXSpotStream, the current leading disclosed service in 2019, continues to experience tremendous growth. Through September 2019, FXSpotStream’s ADV is up 33% when compared to the same period last year. The growth of the Service is attributable in part to the shift in trading from anonymous to disclosed venues. ...show more
There has been an immense improvement in technology within the FX industry over the past couple of decades, so much so, that it has altered liquidity provider behavior. The efficiency in which trades can be safely executed through state-of-the art data centers, with speeds measured in milliseconds, has pushed the overall turnover within the OTC FX market to $6.6 trillion per day, (spot FX making up $2 trillion per day (per BIS (1)). ...show more
With Christopher Torrington, Global Head – EM FX eTrading at Citi, Edward Brown Head of Regulated Trading, 360TGTX, Jon Vollemaere CEO R5FX, Tamaryn Nuttall, ForexClear COO, LCH and Bobby Lau, FX Trader at ICBC Standard bank...show more
According to the Global Findex Database, about 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked - meaning they do not hold an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider, the rise in digital technology in Africa provides opportunities for expanding financial inclusion...show more
On-exchange FX volumes are increasing rapidly, enabling exchanges to broaden the depth and breadth of the products traded on their platforms. Richard Willsher investigates further....show more
Gold-i is a global market leader in trading technology, helping hundreds of multi-asset brokers to transform their trading operations with robust liquidity management solutions, award-winning MetaTrader Plug-ins, business intelligence tools and all with the best support in the industry. We caught up with Tom Higgins CEO and Founder of this award winning firm to find out what his plans are for the future....show more
Singapore-based financial technology company Spark Systems provides innovative solutions for foreign exchange trading across Asia. As average daily FX trading in the Southeast Asian nation have now jumped 22% to a record $633 billion in April from the same period in 2016, according to the latest survey by the BIS, we talked with Wong Joo Seng, CEO of the firm to discover in what ways this growth presents opportunities for his company....show more
e-Forex spoke with Beverley Doherty, Global Head of FX Connect to learn more about how her team have taken this market leading platform to the next level...show more
SWIFT’s global payments innovation (gpi) is improving the user experience in cross-border payments as well as reducing costs and risks in correspondent banking. e-Forex spoke with Matt Cook, Senior Markets Manager, Capital Markets and FX, to discuss how real-time payment tracking can also benefit capital markets firms....show more
Client demand and competitive threats highlight flaws in FX-only mindset. The leveraged trading industry may have its foundations squarely set in currency markets, but recent decades have seen successive demands for asset classes beyond forex to be added to trading platforms....show more
Japan’s economy is operating below its potential, growth in Japan’s economy slowed down in the third quarter ending September, at its weakest in a year, as trade conflict threatened and slow global demand pressured economic expansion. ...show more
The World Gold Council (WGC) last week published its quarterly “Gold Demand Trends,†giving the data on the supply and demand for gold. It shows that record prices for gold in some non-dollar currencies has apparently discouraged purchases of physical gold through jewelry and bars & coins....show more
A decade on and cryptocurrency trading has come a long way since the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto completed the first transaction with Hal Finney, a computer programmer, sending him 10 bitcoin (BTC) on 12 January 2009. Since then, a series of burgeoning markets for hundreds of different cryptocurrencies have developed, with dedicated crypto funds becoming more widespread. As interest in cryptocurrency markets grows, institutional investors are looking to jump into the cryptocurrency pond, with RBC Capital Markets predicting that the market will grow to $10 trillion over the next 15 years. We asked James Banister, CEO, Market Synergy to explore some of the trading connectivity issues confronting institutional trading firms looking to enter the crypto market and the potential opportunities that this fast growing asset class presents once these can be addressed....show more
Bob Santella has worked in the financial industry for over three decades. In this article, Bob explores some of the dynamic changes that he has witnessed in the FX markets and discusses how firms can succeed in an environment where technology-driven influences are buffeting the industry....show more
For more than a decade, GDP growth rates in Asia and other EMs have outstripped developed markets. With the trend expected to continue to grow, institutional investors’ appetite for EM will also continue to take a leaps forward, and as with most markets its an electronic story. ...show more
Before we get to the Holy Grail of FX trade analytics – the ability to analyze execution performance while actually trading – it’s worth taking a pause to assess the current state of FX TCA as it has developed over the last five years....show more
smartTrade Technologies is reaching 20 years of experience in delivering disruptive cross-asset class trading solutions and as a market leading technology provider it continues to win multiple awards. We caught up with David Vincent, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the firm to discover more about what it takes to become a leader in the highly competitive FinTech marketplace. ...show more
It is undeniable that the cryptocurrency market is currently undergoing a strong slowdown. Just a quick look at Google Trends shows that the level of interest is noticeably lower compared to years of 2017 and 2018 when driven by people’s’ enthusiasm, the crypto industry was constantly growing week by week...show more
The euro began trading on 4th January 1999 at $1.16 and since its inception has seen a plethora of fluctuations which couldn’t have been predicted by the best of economists. With world events, political uncertainty and acts of terrorism all contributing factors to the instability of the euro, what does the future now hold for one of the world’s most used currencies?...show more
More than two decades ago, Japan led the way to the zero rate policy. Shortly after, many countries started implementing near or below zero interest rates...show more
While we count down the days left in the year, there’s one big date left for gold investors and indeed for all the financial markets:  The 15th December. Here’s the background....show more
Aggregated liquidity and smart order routing are important ingredients for FX brokers, but they are no longer enough to maintain a competitive edge in today’s FX environment. Gone are the days when brokers are simply adding a margin and hedging each position ...show more
Cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and digitization of existing assets represent the next massive shift in the evolution of money and, more generally, value; these technologies could potentially create the next multi-trillion-dollar opportunity set....show more
In 2013 investor confidence, still reeling from the effects of the ’08 crash and the Greek debt crisis was dealt another blow. Revelations emerged of egregious cheating and shady goings on in two of the world’s most widely used FX benchmarks: the ECB fixing rate and the London 4pm Fix . This prompted a lot of serious debate and culminated in a number of related initiatives including but not limited to a Financial Stability Board special working group on FX benchmarks, the UK government’s Fair & Effective Markets Review and the Global FX Code....show more
The FX market continues to evolve through structural change, regulatory reform, and new technology and no organisation has contributed more to the growth of this market than CLS. Launched in 2002, CLS now has more than 25,000 third-party participants also using its services, and settles USD5.5 trillion of payments on an average day. We spoke with Marc Bayle de Jessé to learn more about his plans for the future and how he intends to build on the legacy of a company that has transformed FX with its innovative approach to multilateral netting and settlement....show more
Rapidly changing dynamics around regulation, credit requirements and new technologies make the focus on operational efficiency as important as supporting customer needs. Making the most of limited resources through strategic decisions about how to scale your business, where to invest and whether to outsource or build in-house can make or break the bottom line....show more
One new question on the 2019 tax return has created a buzz: “At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?” After 5 years of IRS silence on crypto issues, that’s a big question to ask from the perspective of the crypto community....show more
What key features should banks be looking for in a state-of-the art FX OMS? ...show more
In the past 60 years, information technology has evolved on a one decade- long innovation cycle. A new cycle has started, which is centered around Data and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning and is forcefully gaining momentum...show more
Articles on retail brokerage regulations often discuss how complicated and fraught the space can be. Perhaps it’s a testament to the maturity of the retail FX/CFD industry that this isn’t really the case any longer. In fact, if there is a trend to be observed......show more
When financial market participants set their network strategies, much of their focus is around the main mode of communication. In the ‘race to zero’ latency, how big an advantage does a microwave network provide,...show more
Gold started 2020 on a positive footing with the price rising more than 2% in the first two weeks of the year. This rally is a continuation of the 18% rally that happened in 2019. The question among investors is whether the current rally can continue....show more
During the last decade we have witnessed a significant upheaval in the payments landscape. The relentless drive to mobile banking, real time payments, and online shopping has been driven by fintechs, younger tech-savvy demographics and new global financial instruments. This pattern has driven increased volumes and has coincided with ever-increasing demands for payments to be executed and settled in real-time. This past decade has seen a plethora of developments in payments and FX settlements including new entrants, new models and changes to existing models. Despite all this, the introduction of instant FX settlement and international payments has some serious obstacles to overcome; not just in terms of the market infrastructure, but also the internal systems and processes and just as importantly and vitally, how the two intersect....show more
Today’s FX traders are faced with a conundrum. The massive wave of regulatory oversight rolling over financial services has also landed on the shores of FX. It’s brought with it an enormous number of regulatory requirements, which are growing at superhuman speed and carry increasingly severe repercussions for non-compliance....show more
Sibos 2019 Looking back at the FX day in London ...show more
One of the largest, contemporary banks in the Baltic region has taken its customer service to the next level. They are one of a new generation of independent banks to adopt an innovative approach to treasury and sales, intertwining the two activities. The Bank recognised that making this strategic decision will give it a competitive edge in the market....show more
e-Forex talks with David Mercer CEO of LMAX Group....show more
Ramy Soliman, Chief Strategy Officer at Z.com Global Markets outlines what key attributes are clients now looking for from leading prime-of-prime brokerages ...show more
Lack of liquidity has restricted e-trading of Latin American currencies, yet the scale of the region’s population and its real economy coupled with technology are now driving adoption of electronic platforms. Richard Willsher investigates....show more
David Cooney, CEO & Co-Founder of MahiFX outlines some of the challenges facing brokers in 2020 and what steps they can take to overcome them...show more
In some ways chatbots have become the red-headed stepchildren of artificial intelligence. Despite their initial promise, our first encounters with them have left much to be desired. For many they’re the annoying faux agents that we’re often stuck with when searching for a real person to talk to...show more
Tools For Brokers (TFB) is looking to become one of the leading global B2B Forex technology providers. The firm develops plug-ins and applications for brokers of any size and type and specializes on software development for the Metatrader platform (MT4, MT5). We spoke to Chief Operating Officer, Albina Zhdanova to find out more about the company’s offerings and plans for the coming year. ...show more
The price of gold has risen by more than 4% this year. In the same period, the Bloomberg Commodity Index has fallen by more than 7% while the dollar index has risen by more than 2%. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has risen by more than 40% this year while the S&P500 has risen by more than 3%....show more
Although there are multiple proprietary, front-end buy and sell-side trading platforms available today, a FIX API is still the most secure way to trade. This is mostly due to its functionality and flexibility, which I will explain below....show more
Effectively navigating the FX markets today requires a greater level of knowledge, sophistication and expertise than has been previously required....show more
FXCM Pro offers wholesale execution and liquidity solutions for retail brokers, hedge funds and emerging market banks. The firms relationships with tier 1 banks and non-bank liquidity providers, prime broker relationships, and technology vendors provide its customers with market access on an unrivalled scale. We talked to Mario Luis Sanchez Wandemberg, Managing Director - Global Head of the company to learn more about its capabilities and plans for the future....show more
We think it makes sense to tackle some topics in our articles this year that challenge common wisdom and hopefully improve the intuition of buy side traders who want to achieve best execution outcomes. ...show more
With Kah Yang Chong, ForexClear Product Manager, David Holcombe, Product Lead for FX Futures & Clearing at 360T, and Paul Houston, Global Head of FX Products at CME Group....show more
Globally, market volatility and regulatory pressure are causing new customers to look at the hedging products exchanges have to offer them. ...show more
Having access to the right data at the right time is vital for profitability and performance. In 2019, the financial industry spent a record USD 50 billion on market and trade data....show more
There’s no escaping the fact that today’s retail trader now wants the ability to look well beyond a select group of FX pairs when developing and executing their trading strategy. ...show more
As Big Data analytics becomes more and more important in FX we asked David Vincent, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of smartTrade Technologies to highlight some of the key issues that trading firms need to focus on and to tell us how smartTrade’s powerful smartAnalytics solution can assist them....show more
The outbreak of Covid-19 has had major implication in world markets in the past 30 days. Global stocks, as measured by the MSCI index have dropped by more than 14% in the past 30 days alone. The Bloomberg Commodities Index has declined by more than 6% while the US dollar index has declined by more than 2%. Gold has been an outlier as its price has soared by more than 7%....show more
Richard Willsher investigates how electronic FX markets are performing as the global corona crisis deepens...show more
In 2020, global capital markets consultancy GreySpark Partners observes that overall FX market structural dynamics significantly impact trading franchise business models and drive decision-making across the different segments of market participants in different ways....show more
For as long as there’s been foreign exchange trading, buy side institutions generate the demand for FX liquidity, while market makers provide the supply. A symbiotic relationship that has stood the test of time, but with increased pressures for best execution and enhanced transparency, especially in uncertain times like now with the resurgence of volatility, the demand for peer-to-peer liquidity has never been greater....show more
“The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey states that turnover is a rough proxy for liquidity and, if it is, liquidity is at an all-time high,” said Gavin Wells, moderator of the FX Day at Sibos on 23 September 2019. “Yet if you talk to market participants, they would tell you that the capital implications have led to a reduction in credit, which has reduced market access, which means they have less liquidity. So how can both conditions exist?”...show more
Refinitiv’s trading business provides solutions across the entire trading workflow including pre-trade insight, execution capabilities, and transactional workflow solutions for the sales, trading, and research of FX, rates, credit, equities and other exchanged-traded instruments globally, constituting nearly all the major buy-side and sell-side financial firms around the world....show more
Client demands for speed and efficiency, coupled with regulatory pressure for transparency, will continue to drive the growth of electronic trading, including trading of more complex products....show more
With Paul Arnold, EMEA Head of Sales, Euronext FX and Vincent Sangiovanni, CEO 360TGTX...show more
We asked Gill Bacon, Business Development Director, Banking to tell us why now, more than ever, integrating trading, treasury and sales operations can help navigate the ever-complex world of e-trading and regulatory compliance....show more
FX, as an asset class, has long exhibited certain key and defining features in the context of the global financial markets. Firstly, there is the intrinsic link between FX and the real economy – and the role that FX plays not only in facilitating global trade and commerce, but also payments....show more
In this increasingly competitive market, we continue to see spread compression in FX and precious metals. This has been an exponential trend since the rise of electronic trading (namely e-FX), as access to the $6 trillion daily FX industry has become far more appealing with the evolution of technology and the relative ease of market entry....show more
Gold price has risen by almost 2% in the past month while the dollar index has risen by more than 4%. This price action was mostly due to global central banks and policymakers. The two have moved swiftly to support the economy....show more
After the first 45 days of the pandemic, it’s clear that the capital markets met volatility and turbulence with resilience. As we take stock of this new environment, the conversation will shift to how we recover and adapt....show more
Over the better part of the past 15 years, most of the innovation in the foreign exchange (FX) market has been dedicated to spot transactions, which benefitted from electronification, automation, and algorithmic trading....show more
While the full effect of Coronavirus (Covid-19) remains to be seen, its impact is already unprecedented, creating challenges for companies across sectors on a global scale. For financial services, the pandemic is highlighting the importance of operational resilience, a priority that will continue to be a focal point well beyond the lifecycle of the pandemic. ...show more
Following on from our roundtable feature earlier this year, which focussed on some of the complexities and current models of FX clearing, we asked Kah Yang Chong, Head of ForexClear Product, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at LCH to give us his views on how the clearing landscape is likely to evolve further....show more
Reduced costs, flexible design, high reliability and ultra low latency: Why cloud based e-FX platforms offer an increasingly compelling proposition...show more
Lots of buy side firms are talking about FX automation right now, but what does it mean when this talk turns into action? Sebastian Hofmann-Werther, Head of EMEA at 360T, explains....show more
FXSpotStream which was formed in 2011 is a subsidiary of LiquidityMatch, the bank owned consortium operating as a market utility. e-Forex spoke to their Co-founder & CEO Alan F. Schwarz, about the company’s continued growth and how it is ideally placed to take advantage of the latest trends that are influencing the FX market....show more
By Fabrice Benouaich, Finastra, Director, Product Management SeamlessFX and Guillaume Spay, Finastra, Director, Global Solutions, Treasury and Capital Markets. ...show more
Fund managers are increasingly interested in the benefits that crypto could offer their portfolios, however this requires the value of those assets be custodied and safeguarded much in the same way traditional assets are. ...show more
Albina Zhdanova, COO at Tools for Brokers explores what to request from your bridge solution...show more
The uptake of Business Intelligence software amongst FX brokers has traditionally been quite low – from what I’ve seen, they are probably only used by around 20% of brokers worldwide. So why is the figure so low......show more
The price of gold has moved relatively sideways in the past thirty days as the market continued to focus on the reopening of the world economy. Investors have also been focusing on the actions of central banks including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank...show more
Looking for Best Execution? Here is what might influence your FX trading strategy By Guy Hopkins, Founding Director and Jian Chen, Head of Data Science, FairXchange...show more
Market impact can mean many different things but in essence it is an estimate of the movement in the market price during and following a buy or sell trade. The act of buying pushes the price up and the act of selling causes the price to fall...show more
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Asia Pacific’s principal FX trading centre is increasingly demonstrating what happens when market forces, technology, regulatory support, regional political events and positive sentiment all align. Richard Willsher investigates....show more
Richard Estes looks at the evolving FX trading needs of asset managers, particularly those of real-money asset managers and looks at the challenge of OMS-EMS integration for FX trading, and what it is necessary to understand about the role that both an OMS and FX EMS play in FX trading....show more
The award winning quantitative technology provider that strives to connect traders to markets in a more transparent and intelligent manner...show more
The future of financial services will be a true merger of the best of both human and machine, according to a report produced by Refinitiv with Greenwich Associates. It finds that over the next three to five years investing and trading decisions will still need to leverage human intuition, while data analysis and trade execution will become increasingly automated and more efficient. Nicola Tavendale investigates....show more
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Recent global events have led to a surge in the popularity of online trading, with many brokers reporting increased trading volumes. However, it’s important to note that recent growth is riding an already well-established trend of interest in retail trading....show more
The Forex/CFD industry has now reached a stage of maturity, making it challenging for startups and smaller firms to establish their presence...show more
Gold price reached a year-to-date high of $1,768 on May 18. Since then, its performance has straggled behind the overall market. In the past month alone, the price has declined by about 0.6% while the S&P500 and Nasdaq 100 have gained by more than 8%. ...show more
The FX Global Code (the Code) is coming up for its three-year review and the market has just faced some of the most challenging trading conditions in living memory. What has the Code contributed and does it need to be updated? asks Richard Willsher....show more
Technology in the foreign exchange markets has become an ever-present part of the industry in recent years, from pre-trade, electronic trading and post-trade elements all factoring into the entire trade lifecycle......show more
SWIFT gpi has delivered fast, traceable and more transparent cross-border payments for transaction banking. The FX industry can now realise the same benefits for institutional FX trades that settle outside of CLS....show more
Crown Agents Bank looking to promote more effective global payment distribution and levels of financial inclusion: Crown Agents Bank is a UK regulated provider of wholesale FX and cross-border payment services connected across frontier and emerging markets. e-Forex spoke with its CEO, Albert Maasland, about his vision for the bank, it’s unique offering and growth opportunities, and its digital transformation journey....show more
Nicholas Pratt examines the emergence of exchange-based and OTC trading, the fledgling crypto market and various regional fintech initiatives which are all helping to boost the FX market and increase demand for electronic trading services across the Middle East and North Africa...show more
Exploring a mobile trading app from FlexTrade Systems...show more
As Covid-19 swept across the globe earlier in the year, the way in which we worked, socialised, communicated and cared for each other changed. These changes were quickly enabled in part by existing technology that had thus far been underutilised...show more
Borne on a wave of volatility started by US-China trade tensions, Brexit and now a global pandemic, the practice of options trading has grown significantly over the past few years...show more
Gold price has been on an upward trend in the past few months. Its price has risen by 10% in the past three months and by about 7% in the past month. Trading at $1,810 per ounce, the price is at the highest it has been since 2011 and a few points below its all-time high. ...show more