Unique insights regarding how the FX market today is developing.

This episode opens with MacGillivray talking about her firm’s technology stack for multi-asset dealing, explaining that there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution and, therefore, the desk has instead built out a “best-of-breed” model which deploys asset class specific technology to ensure the best execution outcomes. MacGillivray also highlights areas where she sees existing technology being adapted to fit different asset classes, talks about the importance of reducing manual risk from the trading desk and discusses how attitudes towards handling FX exposures are slowly changing amongst the investment management community. The episode ends with MacGillivray expressing optimism that the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to greater diversity within the financial services industry, reducing the existing culture of presenteeism that she says exists today.

In this episode Christopher Cruden, CEO and Director of the hedge fund Insch Kintore Ltd., reflects on how the FX markets have changed since he launched his first currency trading programme back in 1991 and explains how he has adapted his trading strategy accordingly. Cruden also tackles the question of why trend following strategies have generally yielded poor returns over the past decade and whether or not there is actually such a thing as “sweet spot volatility” when it comes to FX.

Institutional investment portfolios have become increasingly international over the past decade, with one unintentional consequence of this being that FX exposures have similarly increased. As Momtchil Pojarliev, Head of Currencies at BNP Paribas Asset Management, explains, the key question then becomes: how should these investors be managing this risk? In this episode Pojarliev evaluates some of the different currency hedging strategies available to institutional investors and highlights some of the key challenges they face in attempting to implement an effective currency management policy.

In this episode Alejandro Padilla, Executive Director of Economic Research & Financial Markets Strategy at Grupo Financiero Banorte, gives his outlook for emerging market currencies, noting that contagion curves and stimulus policies are likely to be the main drivers of performance this year. Focusing on Latin America in particular, Padilla explains what different factors will determine currency hedging decisions and talks about the impact of the US election on the value of the Mexican peso.

The impact of technology on relationships within the FX industry is one of the central themes of this episode, with Melody Martinez-Davidson from BBVA. She explains that e-trading can actually benefit salespeople by eliminating the administration around their client’s trading activity and freeing up time to focus on more important issues. Martinez-Davidson also details, how various client types have shifted some of their FX trading to different execution channels during the pandemic and why it’s beneficial for sales teams to have a more holistic, cross-asset focus.

In recent months, everyone has had the experience of being on a virtual group call. Conversation is punctured by awkward silences, followed by two or more people trying to talk at once, as technology still doesn’t fully compensate for in-person interaction. In this podcast episode, Andreas Gaertner, a trader at Traton, talks about how his firm has had to adapt to new communication channels, in order to ensure efficient FX execution. He also explains that while the FX market itself is already highly digital, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced firms to make more of the process around trading more digital, a trend that he expects to continue in the future.

The FX Global Code of Conduct has been a big industry-wide initiative in recent years, but when volatility exploded back into life earlier this year, did it really make a difference? In this podcast episode James O’Connor from the Bank of England talks about putting the Code to work and using it to generate greater communication between counterparties. He also discusses how recent events have served to highlight the changing nature of liquidity within the FX market and the implications of the trend towards increased algo usage amongst buy side firms.

In this podcast Livingsmith highlights that FX Swaps are the core funding instrument for most financial institutions – and therefore are critical within financial markets – but that even now pricing for these often remains significantly wider than normal. He also ruminates on the need for greater automation and end-to-end processing, improved communication and a means to effectively measure output within firms.

Alex Clark talks to 360T about the liquidity issues caused by the sudden combination of market volatility and people working from home. However, he says that despite stressed liquidity conditions FX algorithms have performed well, enabling the trading team to focus their attention on the most challenging markets, such as EM currencies, options and NDFs. Explaining that enhanced execution tools are in high demand amongst buy side firms right now, Clark discusses how algos have needed to adapt to changing market conditions in recent weeks.