Some economies are showing signs of recovery. Will it be sustainable? Will the financial markets industry find a way back to 'normality'? What will be the consequences for the FX markets? The financial crisis has highlighted just how little is known about the structure of banks' international balance sheets and other issues of interconnectedness. Nowadays we are all waiting for what the regulatory environment comes up with next....

Jesse Drennan explains why post-trade processing in FX demands reinventing.

Jon Vollemaere, co-Founder of FXecosystem shares some thoughts on low latency trading for FX and some pasta recipes.

The dramatic defaults of Lehman Brothers and AIG prompted a flight to quality in the FX prime brokerage market. Frances Maguire looks at what it takes to be a provider of choice in the current environment and in the future.

The drive by trading houses and boutiques to secure ultra-low latency solutions to FX market venues and their matching engines has been cranked up of late, with deployment of proximity hosting being a must-have offering. Roger Aitken examines the state of play in proximity hosting and co-location services, semantics aside.

Bunzl is a FTSE 100 UK company with operations spanning the Americas, Europe and Australasia. The company has partnered with both customers and suppliers in providing outsourcing solutions and service oriented distribution. It supplies a broad range of internationally sourced products that are everyday essentials for its' customers to operate their businesses.
Bunzl's revenue in 2008 was £4.2bn with operating profit of £245m. The company has around 13,000 employees worldwide and operates a centralised treasury department which acts as an in-house bank and is comprised of four people. The department carries out transaction hedging on behalf of subsidiaries and generally manages the foreign exchange and banking relationships of the Group.
e-Forex talks to John Chamberlain, Treasury Manager in their treasury department.

The decision on whether or not to use FX algorithms is an easy one to make in today's market, however deciding which ones to use is a more difficult choice. For example, is it better to deploy an off-the-shelf algorithm or a customised solution? How much tailoring can be done with an off-the-shelf solution and how much work on the clients' side does customisation involve? Nick Pratt examines some of the key issues.

In the electronic trading FX world, every application has its role. Aggregation tools are responsible for presenting a consolidated view of the market's far-flung liquidity. And the algorithms are the mathematical means by which traders can automate their increasingly sophisticated execution strategies. In between these two processes sits the smart order router (SOR) and its job is to direct the algorithms to the various liquidity sources collected by the aggregator.

Irene Aldridge discusses the mechanics, pros, cons and the implementation challenges of several key sell- side high-frequency strategies which can be applied to many securities, including FX.

Twitter, the social networking site, is fast catching on as a source of news for FX traders and other market participants, who can now feed

The forex market has been changing rapidly, with the emergence of FX as a legitimate asset class for financial investment and speculation, the rapid growth of electronic marketplaces, and more recently, the introduction of algorithmic trading. These trends have pushed the technology curve, demanding more sophisticated tools to optimize results.

If what you see is truly what you get then it is little surprise that traders are investing heavily in FX aggregation. But, says Nicholas Pratt, with such a wide variety of products on offer, how do traders pick the most appropriate solution?

MAP S.Platis is an independent Cyprus-based centre of excellence in the support of financial institutions operating or wishing to operate in the European Union. The company is the leader in the field of registration of Banks and Investment Firms (IFs), including foreign exchange (FX) brokers and market makers in the European Union. The Managing Director, Dr. Stelios Platis, talks to e-Forex about the activities of the company and particularly its core, Financial Services Advisory (FSA), division.

Windsor Brokers is a leading Cyprus-based investment firm that was established in 1988. The company provides a wide range of financial products such as Forex, Futures, Precious Metals, Indices, CFDs and Energies. Johny Abuaitah is Managing Director of the company and talks to e-Forex about its products and services and plans for future growth.

e-Forex talks to Ramzi Chamat, CEO of Tadawul FX Ltd, a leading Swiss forex broker who recently relocated their headquarters to Cyprus.

e-Forex has an exclusive interview with Alexander Saidullin, lead programmer of the new MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform

There was a time when people dreamed of tomorrow

Contracts For Difference (CFD) trading is a vehicle that has been designed to enable investors to open either a long or short position in a synthetic contract that moves in line with the underlying security. The ability to use leverage affords the investor the opportunity to carry out trades using only a fraction of the underlying contract value. Heather McLean looks at what makes CFD trading an extremely attractive way of gaining significant exposure to securities such as FX, without the traditional obligation to fund the entire contract value.