Somewhat cheekily, I thought, a press officer at HSBC sent me a link this week about a new product that has been jointly developed by Royal Philips Electronics and the Dialogues Incubator, an initiative by ABN AMRO. Called the ‘Rationalizer’, the product has two components - the EmoBracelet and the EmoBowl. The bracelet measures the arousal component of the user’s emotion through a galvanic skin response sensor. This arousal level is rendered as a dynamic light pattern on either the EmoBracelet itself or on the EmoBowl.

The New York FX Committee will appoint Jeff Feig, global head of G10 FX at Citi, as its chairman when Richie Mahoney, the current occupant, steps down in early 2010. Mahoney, head of BNY Mellon's global markets and capital markets group, is one of the most loyal people I have come across in the FX market. He has served on the committee since 1994, so Feig has a lot to live up to. I'm sure he will be up to the task.

The global financial climate has forced treasurers to focus on making the best use of resources, wherever they may be. Technological developments are making that easier, but they are also having to cope with a tighter regulatory environment.

The limited effects of a system breakdown at EBS suggest the two interdealer brokers no longer dominate FX price discovery. They had better watch out, there’s a new market paradigm on the block and it is hungry for their lunch. Lee Oliver reports.

Market veteran Keith Henthorn – who has been around so long he may even remember the Flower Pot Men – has left his role at Société Générale New York and is heading west to join Citi. Talk is that he has been hired to run the bank’s FX sales team in San Francisco. He will be joined by Laura Lifland, who has been lured from UBS San Francisco. No word of confirmation from any of the banks, all of who seem to be sitting on the dock of the bay on this one.

Serial entrepreneur and FX technology pioneer Farid Naib has joined the board of technology provider FX Bridge. Naib is one of the industry’s most colourful characters; he initially forged a career providing lighting for music acts, including BB King, Allman brother Greg, The Police and The Sex Pistols, who were touring the southern United States in the 1970s. After selling his company and going to university, Naib later went on to found FNX Solutions, which he has sold at least twice.

What a week. The market was enlivened by talk of a devaluation in Latvia, a report claiming that end of the dollar was nigh and plenty of jawboning from central bankers and government officials in Istanbul. I often wonder if those in charge of FX rate management would be better off standing on their hands and talking out of their nether regions. It is a question I have sometimes asked. Obviously, nobody has replied.

I understand that an easy way for banks to rebuild their balance sheets after a load of blokes who knew the price of everything and value of nothing have blown holes through them is to get the cash from their clients, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

EBS, Reuters and the CME all saw an increase in turnover in September.

Richard Bailey has apparently left his role at Credit Suisse in London, where he traded options, and joined Société Générale in a senior role. No confirmation from the French bank, which has had a search out for a grand fromage for some time.

Standard Chartered Bank has concluded its first-ever structured Islamic FX hedging transaction in Europe. The deal was concluded with the European Islamic Investment Bank. The bank says it is part of an ongoing process to develop products that both follow Shariah principles and fulfil its customers’ specific requirements. StanChart adds the deal is the first of its kind under its new Musawamah documentation and involves an exchange of commodities for each FX leg.

ANZ has appointed Chris Wray as a senior dealer in London. He will run the main Australian dollar spot book and report to Stewart Morton, who heads the bank’s London trading business.

CME chief executive Craig Donohue has been elected to serve a two-year term on the board of World Federation of Exchanges. “CME Group looks forward to ongoing collaboration with the WFE and its members to share insights across markets and build awareness on common issues and concerns. By working together, we can ensure greater global collaboration between exchanges and derivatives market regulators so that we collectively put forward analysis and recommendations that ensure greater coordination across geographies and jurisdictions,” says Donohue.

On September 11 BGC Partners held its Annual Global Charity Day, involving the slightly bizarre sight of well-known (and indeed not-so-well-known) celebrities wandering around the inter-dealer broker’s trading floors taking calls from clients.

Barclays Capital has rolled out an improved version of its highly rated Barx trading platform.

Keen to avoid pitfalls of FXMarketSpace; Flexibility and cooperation key

The yet-to-be-named trade aggregation service launched by CLS and Icap subsidiary Traiana in April received a fillip in September when Goldman Sachs became the latest bank to say it would support it. It joins the seven founder banks: Bank of America; Credit Suisse; Citi; Deutsche Bank; JPMorgan; Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland.

An aim of tapping into the potential of robust, transparent and ultimately investable FX indices has resulted in FTSE Group launching its FTSE Currency Forward Rate Bias (FRB) Index Series in conjunction with Record Currency Management. The FRB series effectively provides a carry strategy on the dollar, euro, yen, sterling and Swiss franc. Record’s research suggests that FRB provides a fundamental and sustainable return stream that rewards the risks associated with holding higher-interest-rate currencies. The index series is based on data going back to 1978 and shows a long-term return comparable to global equities and superior to global bonds, but with lower volatility. Ultimately, the hope is that products, such as ETFs and futures, will be based on the indices.