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This is a conversation I could have had this week with almost anyone working in FX for a bank: “Was your bonus any good?” I might ask. “I shouldn’t complain,” would be the reply. “But I will anyway,”

It’s good when simple questions are answered in terms that even thickies like me can understand. Recently, I have been slavishly following EUR/GBP because, more by luck than judgement, I am long of a euro-denominated asset and I have started wondering if I can – in a phrase so often heard wheeled out over the past few years – release some alpha through FX. It seems the prospects of EUR/GBP reaching parity change daily, so I have been struck by a bad case of dithering: Should I hedge or not?

The weeklyFiX was sent a note this week saying that the Polish government was discussing a new regulation that would result in the cancellation of currency options transactions written by some of the country’s exporters. The news, first mooted back in December caused quite a sharp move in EUR/PLN. It also rekindled memories of the debacle in Russia in 1998, when a dodgy Micex fixing resulted in many Western banks having to wear losses when they thought they should be booking profits.

According to Saxo, there has been a huge increase in the number of its clients using technical alerts to generate trade ideas on its SaxoTrader platform. As a result, it has now launched an automated idea generator called TradeMaker. This will send trade ideas on 10 currency pairs. If the client likes the idea, it automatically populates an order ticket with entry, profit target and stop loss price levels.

Following the completion of its takeover of trading systems solutions provider GL Trade, SunGard has officially launched its Global Trading business. Both companies have a long history of acquisitions, and at a press launch in London on Wednesday, SunGard’s financial systems chief executive Harold Finders said this has helped to speed up the integration process. He also said that deal was complementary rather than synergistic in nature.

Alternative services provider Voltrex has formed a joint venture with Power Capital Group to expand operations into Asia. As part of the partnership, Voltrex will offer CFDs, spread trading and exchange-traded fixed-income products through Power Capital’s Chinese language.

Not surprisingly, Icap comments on the tough market conditions in its latest interim management statement, released yesterday (Thursday). The statement covers the period from October 1 to February 12. The company says revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008 was around 20% ahead of the same period in 2007. Commenting on its FX business, Icap says that volumes have started to slow. However, mentioning electronic broking specifically, it maintains that its position at the market’s hub offers potential, “as the banks focus more on flow businesses.” Icap also says there is a significant demand for more efficient post-trade services, which it believes it is well placed to offer.

Pete Eggleston has left his role as global head of quant solutions at RBS; he is now studying for a master’s degree in conservation, but more impressively training hard in an attempt to qualify as an age grouper for the World Triathlon Championships. These are being held on Australia’s Gold Coast in September, so they are bound to be popular. Eggleston will have to analyse all aspects of his training if he is to successfully qualify, which I’m sure he is more than capable of.

Word reaches me that Steen Jakobsen is to leave his position as chief investment officer of Saxo at the end of February. No word of what he is planning to do, but I understand that the decision was entirely his and he is leaving on good terms. No doubt an option will be to count his money; the buzz is that David Karsbol, Saxo’s chief economist, will head up the bank’s strategy and the fund management team.

The recent appointment of Mo Grimeh as Standard Chartered’s head of trading for the Americas has had a swift impact. The roles of both Keith Underwood and Steve Santa-Maria have been cut. Underwood was regional head of FX trading, while Santa-Maria was regional head of sales. “These positions were eliminated as we aligned our organizational structure with the rest of the bank. The head of sales for Europe and Americas is Adam Freeman in London, and the head of trading for the Americas is Mohammed Grimeh,” says a bank spokeswoman.

Kevin Ashby has become deputy chairman of FXArchitects. He was previously chief executive of Saxo’s Asian business and before that CEO of software vendor Patsystems. He will be based in Singapore.

To encourage bank lending in the USA, the new Administration is following a stealth policy of moving bad assets to the Fed and good assets to the banks.