Buy-siders often have lofty ambitions about how far they might automate trading workflow. For the most part, firms have concentrated on doing what’s easy – automating smaller, simpler trades that can be executed by straightforward algorithms. In foreign exchange, AllianceBernstein has seen room to go further. Within the past year, the firm’s multi-asset trading team […]
Wild dollar swing upended FX options hedges – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content Banks chased vol higher as last week’s EUR/USD surge knocked out barrier trades The selloff in the US dollar last week against the yen and euro forced many foreign exchange options dealers to hurriedly buy back
All-to-all foreign exchange options venue SpectrAxe is preparing to expand into FX forwards, swaps and non-deliverable forwards, according to recent filings with US regulators. SpectrAxe went live with the market’s first options central limit order book (Clob) in mid-2024, allowing hedge funds to trade anonymously with other hedge funds, regional banks and market-makers via their
US mutual funds slash short euro positions at record pace – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content Counterparty Radar: Pimco cut $4.6bn of EUR/USD puts in Q3 amid changing stance on dollar direction US mutual fund and exchange-traded fund managers cut $7 billion of euro/US dollar FX options positions during
Rollercoaster year for FX traders ends with G10 volatility and hedging flows back where they started Source link
US insurers turn to short-dated FX forwards as notionals rise – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content Counterparty Radar: Trades under three months make up nearly 60% of total positions, up from just a third in 2022 US insurers ramped up their use of short-dated FX forwards to manage currency
Market participants desire more transparency when it comes to price discovery and mechanisms in benchmarking foreign exchange swaps and forwards markets, said panellists at the New York Federal Reserve’s FX market structure event. Traders and market venues have been exploring new ways to formulate an electronic FX swaps price discovery venue, but progress has been
A surge in uncollateralised foreign exchange forwards hedging from buy-side clients could put bank balance sheets under pressure, dealers warn. FX hedge ratios at asset managers and pension funds have not materially increased in 2025, despite the selloff in the US dollar in the second quarter. This may change, though, as narrowing interest rate differentials could
If the first half of 2025’s currency markets were characterised by record-breaking months of volumes and volatility, the back half of the year has been defined by a range-bound US dollar, promoting an environment for carry trades in emerging markets (EM), particularly in Latin America, to take off. Positioning in these strategies normally builds when
Dealers might be nearing their capacity for Turkish lira options-based carry trades, as liquidity pressures, market risk and unwind concerns begin to constrain the amount of new trading they can support. The lira carry trade has been a favoured strategy among hedge funds and institutional investors this year, owing to the whopping 40% carry on
Vendor tools offering counterparty suggestions to foreign exchange traders should not replace a firm’s own execution assessments, warn market participants. The products, aimed at cash FX trades, can use firm-specific and communal execution data to help buy-side firms standardise and automate counterparty selection. Major transaction cost analysis (TCA) providers BestX and Tradefeedr each offer a
Institutional investors take profit on gold trades – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content Hedge funds trimmed longs after gold rally and triggered massive market selloff Following a 50% year-to-date rally in gold prices to more than $4,000 an ounce, institutional investors have begun closing some of their long positions
Row breaks out over cause of FX settlement fails – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content One European bank blames T+1 for a 50% jump in FX fails, but industry groups dispute the claims A surprising disagreement has broken out between a large European bank and industry groups tasked with
The popularity of hybrid options is expanding beyond hedge funds, with a growing number of asset managers, pension funds and insurers taking advantage of dislocated correlations between asset classes for yield enhancement and cheap long-term hedging. “The biggest chunk has been with hedge funds, but some of the largest trades have been done with asset
Hedge funds switch yen bets after Japan election shock – FX Markets Skip to main content End of drawer navigation content Takaichi victory forces unwinds and a move to topside trades, while barriers give dealers a headache The surprise outcome of the Japanese election has led to a U-turn among many macro hedge funds that
Hedge funds are continuing to run Hong Kong dollar carry trades despite a rise in local interest rates, albeit on a much-reduced scale compared with earlier in the year. Dealers, however, expect a big resurgence in these positions should spot once again hit the bottom of the currency’s trading band, which would force authorities to
As hedge funds have ballooned in recent years, so has their footprint in the few markets large enough to accommodate them. This isn’t a problem when their trades are going well. When those trades backfire, though, it can be a different story – particularly if multiple funds are holding the same position and all try
