There’s an old saying in Britain: “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.” It’s something some of my loaded readers from the FX market seem to have taken a little too literally. I can’t believe how many well-paid bankers have been on to me pleading for a free subscription to the FiX. The release of this year’s Euromoney FX poll further highlighted the fact that many participants in the FX market are quite frankly – and using another English saying – as tight as a duck’s arse.
I recently had one global FX head of a major bank asking me why he couldn’t access the poll results. “It’s probably because you took out an annual subscription more than a year ago and it’s run out,” I replied. “If you renew it, you’ll be able to see the poll.”
Later the same week, another dealer at the same bank sent me an email saying that he couldn’t read the FiX because the global head hadn’t subscribed. “Tell him to rearrange the following,” I wrote back. “Arse, as, duck’s, as, tight, a.”
Still, this is nothing compared to the rant we received from a managing director at a bank that ranked outside the top 10 in the poll.