By Lenore Kantor and Robert Owsley, FXall
Corporate FX managers are seeing the benefits of actively embracing new trading technology.
The FX market has changed dramatically over the past decade as institutional clients have adopted electronic trading technologies. Today, that change continues with an increased focus on regulation, transparency and best execution. In order to meet new requirements and stay ahead of market trends, FX participants naturally are embracing any new electronic solutions that best support their needs.
In addition to other institutional market participants, corporate treasurers have benefited from this transformation. Advances in technology have given treasurers access to a range of trading services previously unavailable (as well as new tools for treasury management; see related story). These new services include electronic multi-bank options trading and active trading platforms.
E-MultiBank Options Trading
FX options are powerful instruments for corporate treasurers looking to hedge FX risk while also potentially profiting from favorable currency movements. Historically, the options market has been traded primarily over the phone and that remains the standard execution practice today for larger orders.
Following the move of FX spot, forwards, swaps and non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) to electronic trading, banks have gradually developed electronic option platforms and many leading FX banks are able to offer their clients functionality to electronically price, trade and risk-manage a variety of option strategies.
Proposed regulatory changes under the Dodd-Frank Act and Europe’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) have increased focus on enhanced transparency in FX options and increased client demand for multibank options trading solutions. On platforms now, customers are sending out option request for quotes (RFQs) to multiple provider banks simultaneously and dealing electronically on the best price. New platforms with automated options pricing allow corporate treasurers to receive competitive option prices electronically regardless of the notional size, maturity, or strategy.
Along with settlement and reporting capabilities, these new multibank option offerings give treasurers the benefit of straight-through processing into their treasury management systems. The time-savings benefits from trading FX options electronically are larger than those of other FX products like spot and forward, because of the unique workflow for options resulting from premium payments and option expiry execution decisions.
In addition, since the options market is not as liquid, getting prices back from banks can take longer; electronic solutions can speed up execution time and minimize risk. The early adopters of multibank options trading platforms are reaping both the time-saving and efficiency benefits of a solution that can be trusted to comply with future regulations.
ECN: Active Trading
Historically treasurers focused exclusively on hedging FX risk in their currency trading. However, in recent years some corporate treasurers have begun to adopt active trading strategies that are more commonly used by hedge funds and banks. As a result, they can reduce their costs and potentially generate alpha to help fund their operations.
This new active trading approach leverages trading tools, such as advanced order types and bank algorithms, which access ECN (electronic communication network) liquidity anonymously. Most treasurers are accustomed to relationship-based trading where they trade on a disclosed basis with their bank counterparties. ECNs work differently—since no counterparties are disclosed, all trading is facilitated through prime brokerage relationships. The anonymous “all-to-all” nature of an ECN or order book, gives participants the flexibility to act on either side of a trade—either as a price taker (the traditional role) or as a price maker.
Price makers are compensated in spread for providing liquidity. As a price maker, the ECN participant does give up some control over when and if an order will be filled and is exposed to market risk. However, an offsetting benefit from taking on more risk by trading actively is that the participant can significantly reduce execution costs by earning rather than paying spread.
ECN participants can use advanced order types like TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) with a peg to break down larger orders into pieces to reduce market impact while also earning spread. Peg orders enter the ECN at a defined offset from the best bid or offer and will change dynamically to remain at that offset as prices move. Some trading analysis has shown the ability to successfully use TWAP with peg orders to reduce trading costs by over 90 percent.
Select corporate treasurers that have the flexibility to use a prime brokerage trading model and are comfortable managing their risk actively have accessed advanced order types and ECN liquidity themselves directly.
Others interested in the benefits of active trading that prefer to trade with a consistent workflow on the traditional disclosed basis are using electronic platforms to route customized algorithmic orders directly to their banks. Banks offer a wide spectrum of execution algorithms that utilize active trading strategies and access diverse liquidity pools.
Corporate treasurers can customize the orders they send to banks based upon their risk tolerance, execution style and trading objectives.
As these new capabilities gain traction, it will be critical for treasurers to stay abreast of the variety of electronic services available to them.
For more information, please contact Jim Kwiatkowski, FXall global head of sales, at +1 646 268 9934 or [email protected].