As the sun rose over the city of London this morning, 750 senior industry executives from all aspects of the global FX industry prepared and looked forward to the second and final day of this year's Forex Magnates London Summit.
Moving on from yesterday's afternoon of highly valuable industry discussion in the form of a discussion panel on the next innovations in technology, featuring highly experienced professionals at the forefront of technological development, followed by an evening of socializing and networking whilst viewing the array of product presentations and displays in the exhibition hall.
High Frequency, High Expectations
This morning, following a bright and early registration at 8.00am, delegates prepared themselves for the first panel discussion of the day, focusing on the challenges faced by high-frequency trading (HFT) participants.
A subject of discussion across the entire spectrum from regulatory authorities, to technology providers seeking to develop the lowest latency, highest performing connectivity to venues, and institutional FX traders internationally has materialized and has been closely followed by Forex Magnates during 2013.
Forex Magnates, CEO and Founder, Michael Greenberg
In this morning's discussion, Jay Hibbin, Commercial Director of MarketPrizm, Kevin Houstoun, Chairman of RapidAddition, Alasdair Moore, Founder and Business Development Director of Fixnetix, Dr Philip Beasley-Harling, Partner & CTO at Blacktree Investment Partners, and Frederic Ponzo, Managing Partner at Greyspark Partners will delve deep into discussing a detailed comparison between the Equities and FX markets in relation to HFT.
Topics on the agenda include debating some of the key differences between the two markets, and what kinds of FX-specific challenges exist both for HFT firms and for the wider market.
Panelists will be asked about market data, co-location, use of FIX, low-latency connectivity between venues, news feeds and algorithms, currency-specific strategies and more.
Moderated by John Howard, Editor of Automated Trader Magazine, the one hour long discussion will give way to a pre-lunch opportunity to take in the exhibition, followed by a structured presentation by Shemer Katz, VP of Product and Marketing at Safecharge, and Stefan Pajkovic, co-founder of newly established innovative social trading network TradeCrowd, in which considerations surrounding choosing a payment partner for an FX brokerage will be proffered.
Subjects of interest during this presentation include investigating payment conversion via one-click deposits for cards and alternative methods, mobile deposits as an integrated payment option, Risk Management best practices and the issue of PCI compliance offloading.
After a morning of highly valuable and informative debate, delegates will take lunch at the Summit's prestigious Grange Hotel venue, which will be followed by coffee and desserts as a precursor to the afternoon's panel discussions.
Trade Execution – Which Method Is Best?
During the afternoon, two discussions panels will be hosted, beginning at 2.30pm with the focus on providing an insight into the buy and sell-sides and their trade execution requirements.
Moderated by EuroMoney journalist Peter Joseph Garnham, the six panelists, namely Fabio Frontini, Founder of Abraxas Capital Management, Mark Suter, Co-Founder of Digital Vega, Yoav Barnes, Managing Director of Victory FX, Glenn Stevens, CEO of GAIN Capital, and Robert Fleschler, Managing Director of KCG Hotspot FX will weigh up the execution requirements and desires of the buy-side with what the sell-side is prepared to offer.
The senior executives will debate aspects by which the sell-side has been slow to meet the requirements of customers, and how much of the cost burden of technological changes, and those caused by regulation, have been taken on by the sell-side, and how much by the buy-side.
Remaining very much on the subject of institutional FX, Michael Cross, Head of FX and Reserves Management at the Bank of England will give a 30 minute keynote speech at 15.30, bringing the Summit on to the final panel discussion of the event.
Efficiency is a critical factor in today's high technology FX industry, and at 4.00pm, Drew Niv, CEO of FXCM, David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange, Derek Sammann, Managing Director of CME Group, James Watson, Head of EMEA at FXall, and Harpal Sandhu, President and CEO at Integral Development Corporation will closely scrutinize how to efficiently execute trades in FX.
Man Vs Machine
Its main topics will include last look vs. no last look; misses vs rejects; double hits; segmenting of flow; defining toxic flow; single-dealer vs ECN; challenges related to scaling execution; viable vs unviable business models related to execution-focused offerings; the future of exchange-based FX trading; technological and operational challenges and more.
The underlying theme of the entire panel will be the human vs machine paradigm and the continued importance of relationships, despite the increasing reliance on technology.
Engaged In Discussion:
Today's Panelists Will Look At Execution, and HFT
As the afternoon draws to a close, the exhibitors will be able to shake hands and detail their product offerings, which at 5.30pm takes the Summit's agenda to the highly popular Elevator Pitch.
Exciting, Quickfire Presentations
The Elevator Pitch event is back by popular demand, and this year allows 12 technological innovators to grab the stage for two minutes each in order to make their case for their product being the most ingenious, leading-edge within the FX industry.
The Elevator Pitch is fast-paced and has a competitive element, the winner of which will be awarded the "Most Innovative Financial Product" award, which was last year presented to tradable for its development of the world's first app-based Trading Platform .
The Summit's delegates will no doubt eagerly await the annual Forex Magnates Awards Ceremony, taking place at 6.30pm this evening, presented by Michael Greenberg, CEO of Forex Magnates. Who will win which award this year?
The entire event can be reflected on as it draws to a close, and delegates can retire to the open bar, sponsored by Saxo Bank, where after a full and interesting two days, there will most certainly be no shortage of discussion.
