A minor – no, sorry, make that a major – gripe I have is to receive a press release that tells me to contact the sender if I want further information, only to be told, when I do so, that nobody is available to answer my questions. I received such a release this week on behalf of Bloomberg, which stimulated my taste buds, but left a sour after-taste for precisely that reason.
“Bloomberg launches new FX system,” screamed the press release. “Bloomberg Tradebook Services has launched its new electronic foreign exchange trading platform on the Bloomberg Professional service. The new Bloomberg Tradebook FX platform utilises Bank of America, one of the world's largest financial institutions, as clearing and settlement counterparty.”
Bloomberg Tradebook says that clients can view its limit order book and monitor a two-sided dynamic VWAP quote based on their trading size. It has also incorporated a sweep algorithm that allows execution against the dynamic VWAP quote, as well as enabling the development of algorithms that monitor and trigger off other markets. However, while this is all very exciting, it seems the main new thing about the service is the fact that BofA has replaced AIG as the system’s central counterparty.