Foreign exchange
London bomb blasts test contingencyplans
LONDON – Last Thursday’s terrorist attacks on London put the FX market’s contingency plans to the test, as explosions ripped through the heart of the global forex capital.
Hedge fund interest in forex continues
London – High profile banks and investment houses are launching currency fund of hedge funds (FOHFs), showing the continuing interest as FX as an asset class.
Algorithmic trading: the new FX frontier
NEW YORK – Algorithmic trading is set to become the new frontier of foreign exchange trading, according to market analysts.
FX Week USA Congress, NY
NEW YORK – Following the success of last year’s inaugural USA congress, FX Week will be hosting its second annual meeting of industry players in New York this Thursday.
Predicting the unexpected
Extreme value theory is an effective way of predicting the large moves frequently seen in currency markets, says Collin Crownover, global head, investor risk advisory group at Citigroup in New York
OCC reports decline in forex derivatives trading
WASHINGTON, DC – Foreign exchange has bucked the trend for derivatives trading with a fall in value for the first quarter of the year, according to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
RBC departures in sales and trading
LONDON & NEW YORK – Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is to scale down its forex operations in New York, and is understood to be closing its prop desk in London with the departure of veteran trader Keith Dack.
Eurex optimistic over forex venture
CHICAGO – Eurex's entry into FX will be facilitated by "the lack of domination in this space", according to Satish Nandapurkar, Chicago-based chief executive officer of Eurex US. He was speaking to FX Week following the exchange's recent move into FX…
Clampdown on speculators in Asia
JAKARTA – Asian authorities have clamped down on speculative trading, with a string of new FX controls across the region.
NAB currency trader jailed
MELBOURNE – Luke Duffy, former head of the National Australia Bank’s (NAB) foreign currency options desk, has been sentenced to 29 months’ imprisonment for his part in the bank’s rogue trading scandal unearthed last year.
Trio of departures from Citigroup
NEW YORK – Citigroup has lost another two FX staff in New York and one in London, following earlier departures and the closure of desks in continental Europe.
CLS bags world’s largest pension fund
AMSTERDAM – The world’s largest pension fund – the e170 billion Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP – has gone live on CLS as a third party of ABN Amro.
Eurex joins FX futures fray
CHICAGO AND FRANKFURT – Eurex, the Frankfurt-based derivatives exchange, has entered the FX market with a September date set for the launch of its futures platform.
Patsystems supports CME on Reuters
LONDON – Software vendor Patsystems has signed a deal to provide technology supporting Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FX on Reuters, as it looks to extend into new areas and develop beyond traditional markets.
More EM currencies for RBS FiX
LONDON – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has made a further upgrade to its online FX service, RBS FiX, with the addition of forward benchmark prices for 12 emerging markets currencies.
CMC Markets adds new products and offices
LONDON/TORONTO – Online FX platform CMC Markets is set to expand with the launch of new currency baskets and additional offices globally.
EM options taking the lead
LONDON – Emerging market currencies is the biggest market for options traders, according to a survey by sister publication Risk magazine, with these units representing more than a third of the total traded.
‘One size fits all’ is not appropriate
Sabrina Jacobs, FX strategist, capital markets, at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, says Asian currencies need to be looked at on an individual basis
Currency warrants taking off in Asia
Hong Kong – Banks are looking to meet the increasing demand for forex-related products by launching currency warrants in major Asian markets.
Five charged over $3m currency fraud
WASHINGTON, DC – The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed another action against individuals taking part in fraudulent foreign exchange trading.
InfoReach adds HotspotFXi to TMS
NEW YORK – InfoReach, the financial securities trading technology firm, has teamed up with Hotspot FXi, the online foreign exchange platform, to allow its clients access to its prices.
‘FX markets are unreadable’
Foreign exchange markets are notoriously difficult to predict, so corporates shouldn’t bother, argues Simon Miles (right), currency strategist at Corporate FX. Instead they should focus on deciding how to hedge the risk so they can determine its real…
‘No’ votes lead to record flows
LONDON – The ‘no’ votes on the EU constitutionreferendums last week led to unexpectedvolatility in the currency markets, and the highestvolumes ever seen on some platforms.