FX: Forex goes into future shock

When forex trading first harnessed the internet, banks tried to attract clients to their individual platforms. They soon faced the problem that some customers were obliged to seek the best price for every transaction. Hence the difficult birth and troubled childhood of multi-bank platforms. End-users seem little more happy with these systems than the rival banks that set them up. And before they have had a chance to digest their implications clients are being offered the prospect of trading directly with each other. Jennifer Morris reports on a market whose innovators may have taken a step too far