There is plenty for Colin Lambert to ponder in this week’s podcast as he reviews the feedback to his recent comments suggesting the NDF market doesn’t need fragmentation, lets listeners in on the background to something that has been puzzling him, and then, with no little trepidation, he “tiptoes” into Cryptoland. Of course, there is no such thing as him doing anything delicately so kicking off with a blast at what he sees as rather simplistic market analysis, he then looks at not only the growi...
Oct 17, 2020•Season 2Ep. 33
There’s a behavioural feel to this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert opens up with his views on the number of spoofers being brought to heel by the CFTC. He then moves onto another CFTC-related issue, wondering if questions should be asked of the management team that allowed Citi’s voice monitoring operation to descend into apparent chaos – leading to a CFTC fine. Finally, in yet another inspired(!) prediction, Lambert wonders if a deal announced this week signals the retreat of voice brokers from...
Oct 03, 2020•Season 2Ep. 33
In this week’s podcast Colin Lambert gets his teeth into one of his favourite subjects – spoofing – and, as usual, has some theories about lessons that can be learned elsewhere. Ahead of Forex Network Chicago later this week, however, which will kick off by a panel looking at the FX swaps market structure, the majority of the podcast looks at a new initiative in that space as Lambert is joined by Andy Woolmer, CEO of New Change FX to talk benchmarks for FX swaps and currency beta indices. Woolme...
Sep 19, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 32
There’s a slightly different feel to this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert is, not for the first time, given an education in the workings of Profit & Loss ! With Forex Network Chicago nearly upon us, Michelle Hemstedt, commercial director at P&L, joins Lambert to explain how our virtual event is going to work, including an explanation of the virtual booths in the virtual exhibition hall. Fresh from understanding how we are putting the “Network” back into Forex Network, Lambert takes a loo...
Sep 12, 2020•22 min•Season 2Ep. 31
The podcast has a nice positive vibe to it this week as Colin Lambert is joined by Ayesa Latif, head of EMEA e-commerce FX sales at Citi to discuss the eighth annual “e-for-education” campaign by the bank, which kicks off this week. Latif explains how the campaign works, what channels are likely to generate the funds, as well as the not for profit partners Citi’s FX team works with – she also highlights some great examples of material help the programme, which raised over $8 million last year al...
Sep 05, 2020•23 min•Season 2Ep. 30
This week’s podcast kicks off with Colin Lambert discussing some of the feedback he received over his comments in the week’s column over the re-papering of trades post the SNB debacle in 2015. He does not, of course, miss the opportunity to drive home his argument that algos should have mandatory price limits, along the way dismissing concerns aired over what would happen if we have another Brexit-type event. Lambert also has time to discuss the latest episode in the Cartel saga as well point li...
Aug 22, 2020•26 min•Season 2Ep. 29
This week’s podcast focuses largely on liquidity in FX markets, which naturally gives P&L’s managing editor, Colin Lambert, an opportunity to share some of his more strident opinions, not least when it comes to customers complaining about spreads. Luckily for listeners, Matthew Hodgson, founder of Mosaic Smart Data is on hand to provide some reasoned analysis, backed up by hard data! Hodgson and Lambert discuss Mosiac’s FX Liquidity service which was launched earlier this year and, more pert...
Aug 15, 2020•31 min•Season 2Ep. 28
There is a controversial start to this week’s podcast as P&L’s managing director Colin Lambert ponders whether the US really does have an “innocent until proven guilty” ethos in its legal system, before debating whether a firm, no last look, order book can really be spoofed? He argues “intention to deal” is fairly easy to ascertain and also makes another one of his predictions, this time about how demand for data could stimulate activity on firm liquidity venues. Lambert is then joined by To...
Aug 08, 2020•31 min•Season 2Ep. 27
There is plenty to talk about for this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert casts an eye over EBS’s plans to alter its matching engine infrastructure and shares some of the feedback he has received. He then has time to launch into a diatribe about the results of a survey last week indicating that spreads are the biggest challenge to market participants – noting that the FX market is a competitive space and therefore spreads are very likely to accurately reflect the risk environment at any given time....
Jul 25, 2020•29 min•Season 2Ep. 26
On this week’s podcast P&L’s managing editor Colin Lambert is joined by Martin Pluves, CEO of the FICC Markets Standards Board (FMSB) for a broad ranging discussion around the evolution and use of technology in the trading business. The two discuss the governance of algorithmic execution processes, following a recent discussion paper and white paper published by FMSB ahead of its next Statement of Good Practice on the subject. Pluves stresses the importance of the right processes, controls a...
Jul 18, 2020•29 min•Season 2Ep. 25
In this week’s podcast, Colin Lambert casts his eye over a new challenge facing Refinitiv Benchmarks over the London 4pm Fix – something he confesses to not have even considered in the past, and then gives his thoughts on a small, but potentially important change at CME Group on its FX Link service. He is then joined by Rashid Hoosenally, co-founder of Lacero, to talk data, APIs and compliance – but from a very different perspective. With data volumes continuing to soar, and the scrutiny of how ...
Jul 11, 2020•31 min•Season 2Ep. 24
The move by Refinitiv to a 5ms data feed on its Spot Matching platform has grabbed Colin Lambert’s attention this week, leading him to call for an open debate in the FX industry over the length of last look windows. With both primary venues at 5ms, is it now the time for platforms to step up and impose a ceiling on hold times? Equally, will this move highlight the “good” LPs from the bad? There’s time for a quick note on this week’s month-end Fix before P&L’s editor-in-chief Julie Ros takes ...
Jul 04, 2020•30 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Colin Lambert flies solo on this week’s podcast, thanks to the sheer weight of news. So the agenda ticks quite a few “Lambert Boxes”, starting with his thoughts over the changing role of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee after this week’s virtual meeting, especially that group mentioning publicly, for the first time in a formal environment, market conditions around the 4pm Fix. This feeds nicely into another feature run by Profit & Loss last week, Lambert’s interview with Shirley Barrow,...
Jun 27, 2020•31 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Data is very much on Colin Lambert’s mind this week, but not in the usual sense. Thursday saw two glitches involving economic data releases, one of which had a comedy element, the other more troublesome, and while he understands mistakes happen, he wonders if we are going to see more of these incidents following the rules around the release of certain dataets being changed. Lambert is then joined by Rowland Park, co-founder and CEO of LimeGlass, a fintech company looking to evolve how research i...
Jun 20, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 21
On this week’s podcast Colin Lambert is joined by Xav Porterfield, head of research at New Change FX (NCFX), to discuss a new method of measuring execution quality – the unit cost of volatility (UCV). Porterfield explains how the measurement actually derives from a landmark market impact paper in the mid-1990s before the two delve into the theory behind it and how NCFX plans to use it. The discussion then turns to more practical matters with Lambert asking how a trader on an execution desk could...
Jun 13, 2020•30 min•Season 2Ep. 20
In this week’s podcast, P&L managing editor Colin Lambert takes a look at the week’s news, including a brief look at the month-end Fix and the “Friday phenomena” in liquidity, leading him to describe the overall experience as “not a good look for the market – although he does also ask the question, “has much changed since 2010?”. He then moves on an incident that he sees as being an egregious breach of the principles of the FX Global Code in the triggering of a barrier option and is concerne...
Jun 06, 2020•24 min•Season 2Ep. 19
This week’s podcast is all about performance – following the third of Profit & Loss’ spring Dial-in-Days, editor-in-chief Julie Ros joins Colin Lambert to discuss some of the themes coming out of the events, starting with hedge fund and CTA performance in the recent market upheaval. Ros dives into the suggestion by panellists in New York that more idiosyncratic, or capacity constrained, strategies worked well, giving Lambert to ideal opportunity to dive in on a regular theme of his – herding...
May 30, 2020•Season 2Ep. 18
Two guests for the price of one on this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert is joined by Keiren Harris, co-founder of Data Compliance LLC to discuss the recent first quarter results, and the future of, the inter-dealer broking industry. Lambert sees some interesting observations in the reports regarding how people are trading, while Harris discusses the squeeze on the major IDBs from above and below. Harris then discusses the importance of these firms being well-capitalised, before the discussion mo...
May 16, 2020•Season 2Ep. 17
When Colin Lambert posted a column arguing that the events surrounding the April month-end FX Fix highlighted the need for reform – and then followed that up by asking if the industry needs to revisit the 2014 FX Benchmark Group’s recommendations – it ignited a firestorm of debate over both public and private channels. This edition of In the FICC of It focuses in on that debate as Lambert lays out – and often disagrees with – the points made by correspondents. He also discusses a few new areas o...
May 09, 2020•Season 2Ep. 16
Due to the level of interest generated by Profit & Loss’ discussion with Rohan Churm, head of the FX division at the Bank of England as part of our first ever Dial-in Day, we are releasing the audio as part of our In the FICC of It podcast series. You can download either by clicking the link below or going to your regular podcast distribution app to hear about how the Bank of England maintains its operations and market surveillance function during the pandemic; as well as Churm’s observation...
May 05, 2020
This week’s podcast features Colin Lambert and Julie Ros taking a look at the week’s event, along with a bit of inter-office banter. Lambert kicks off by asking a question of Ros and the audience and, when he eventually gives the answer later in the podcast, the latter is quick to claim she was going to say that answer…even though she actually answered with something else! The discussion then moves onto events in the oil market and Lambert’s suggestion that what we actually witnessed was a pheno...
Apr 25, 2020•Season 2Ep. 15
This week’s podcast allows Colin Lambert to sound off on two of his favourite subjects as he discusses buzz from various conversations that indicates some LPs in FX markets are extending their last look windows. Referring back to concerns he has raised before in both his columns and on this podcast, Lambert wonders why LPs are simply quoting wider – after all, he asserts, what they are doing at the moment is guessing where the market is because they don’t have to stand behind the price. Liquidit...
Apr 18, 2020•Season 2Ep. 14
For this podcast special, Colin Lambert is joined by Alan Schwarz, CEO of FXSpotStream for a fascinating look inside a business operating in stressful conditions. That FX markets are volatile and volumes are high is obvious to anyone but Schwarz is able to put some numbers on the issue – and they are quite staggering at times. From volumes to order and message rates, through to fill ratios, the podcast studies how FXSpotStream handled the unprecedented challenge of these spikes in activity with ...
Apr 08, 2020
As liquidity has clearly deteriorated in FX markets over the past two weeks, this week’s podcast is faced with a series of questions regarding participant behaviour, and joining Colin Lambert to discuss these issues is John Crouch, founder and CEO of Ideal Prediction. Using the imagination for which he is famous* Lambert kicks things off by looking at Monday morning in Sydney when strange things happened in USD/CAD – prompting the question, is the issue of establishing highs and lows even more p...
Apr 04, 2020•Season 2Ep. 13
It’s an all Profit & Loss affair for this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert is joined by P&L’s editor-in-chief Julie Ros to run through a long agenda in these “interesting” times. This being the podcast Lambert can’t resist a little cynicism to kick off as he “praises” some market analysts’ abilities, but Ros easily pulls the conversation back into line as they discuss the various views proffered by analysts over whether or not the market has priced in the worst case scenario. Lambert beli...
Mar 28, 2020•Season 2Ep. 12
There is one theme for the podcast this week – the FX market’s ongoing challenges in the current volatile environment. Joining Colin Lambert, managing editor of Profit & Loss is Rob Loft, founder and CEO of performance consultants Harvey Loft, to talk through the issues, starting with a perspective of how markets have handled the extraordinary and, in modern times at least, unprecedented, events. Firms’ business continuity plans and technology preparedness comes under the microscope, especia...
Mar 21, 2020•Season 2Ep. 11
The podcast lives up to its name this week with an in-depth look at conditions in fixed income, credit and FX markets as volatility spikes continue in markets generally. After a few observations on bitcoin’s failure to live up to its hype as a hedge in times of turmoil and conditions in the FX market generally, P&L’s managing editor Colin Lambert is joined by Mark Yallop, chair of the FICC Markets Standards Board to talk about recent developments in fixed income markets. With automated tradi...
Mar 14, 2020•Season 2Ep. 10
The is one subject on the agenda for this week’s podcast – the return of volatility to FX markets. Joining P&L’s managing editor Colin Lambert to discuss the issue are David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group, and Joel Kruger, currency strategist at LMAX Exchange. After Kruger provides his view of current conditions in, and drivers of, markets (including the challenges of central banks and governments managing the current crisis with “exhausted policy tanks”), and Lambert observes that any “emergency...
Mar 07, 2020•Season 2Ep. 9
Market structure dominates this week’s podcast as Colin Lambert goes to town on the SEC’s refusal to grant Cboe permission to implement a speed bump (and along the way take a few pops at the equity market structure of course), before touching upon news that the LSE-Refinitiv deal may be delayed and what that means for the latter’s FX business in particular. Following on from last week’s podcast conversation with Matt Kulkin about Libor reform, Lambert also provides some observations on the Bank ...
Feb 29, 2020•Season 2Ep. 8
On this week’s podcast Colin Lambert casts his eye over the week’s news, before he is joined by Matthew Kulkin, partner at US law firm Steptoe, and former director of the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, to discuss all matters regulatory. Lambert is pleased to find out that one of his observations – that there is a rush of rule-making at CFTC – is actually accurate, thanks to the natural cycle with US regulatory circles, as Kulkin takes him through last week’s important...
Feb 22, 2020•Season 2Ep. 7
