All eyes are on Chicago this week

According to some market sources, volumes on the platform last week were below expectations, but that depends on what – and whose – those expectations were. Trades are going through, and have been since the pilot was launched in February.

It's up to FXMarketSpace to publish figures to clarify how well the platform is doing, and it says it will do so in the coming months. It will also be up to the platform to disclose, in future, how much volume is coming in from traders based outside Chicago. After all, one of the debates surrounding the platform is that it favours Chicago-based traders located close to its matching engine.

To this end, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), joint owner with Reuters of FXMarketSpace, launched co-location facilities, called CMELNet. These facilities are directly connected to CME's fibre-optic transport, cutting the average internal round-trip time for orders to 10 milliseconds. The facility has 14 users already, with others in the pipeline. Connectivity is also supported by seven telecommunications hubs around the globe, with another one mooted for Asia.

But then there's the other concern about the traditional role of the sell-side in FX. Although the central counterparty clearing creates a level playing field, some argue it disintermediates banks. Some are not even providing liquidity over the platform for concerns surrounding anonymous trading.

So the question is: how many are actually market-making on the platform, and how heavy a hand will the buy-side have in this? More importantly, given the shift in the market, how much of a concern does the lack of bank market-makers actually present?

I am sure this will make for a rousing debate at the inaugural FX Invest conference being held in Chicago this week. The event brings together members of both communities to discuss and deliberate these and other key developments in the FX industry.

Speakers at FX Invest include industry experts such as Howard Tai, currency and equity derivatives specialist at American Century Investments, Sang Lee, managing partner, Aite Group, and Kelly Adams, chief technology officer at FX Concepts. A healthy mix of sell-side and platforms will ensure this event, like the FX Week congresses before it, will be packed full of excitement. I look forward to seeing you all there.