The Finance Hive Pulse:Produced by The Finance Hive, in Partnership with 
Tech and Talent: How are FX trading desks balancing technology with the human touch?
Did you know that 80% of our selected European buy side traders are automating and 55% of them are automating 25-75% of their flow. However, overseas in the US, only 60% are automating with a majority automating 0% of their flow. In the last couple of years, global desks have become more and more automated, it’s become clear that FX algos become a vital part of trader workflows.
However, our FX members have reported a lack of clear differentiation amongst providers, leaving them with with difficult decisions around which algo providers they should include and how to ensure the right blend.
With a pool of 52 buy side heads of desk from within our community, alongside Bloomberg, we set out to create a collective voice and aggregate the buy side perspective on how automation has impacted their role, how FX trading desks are balancing technology with the human touch and where algos sit within more automated workflows.
The results will help benchmark, educate and pave the way for a new era of automation.
50% of our tickets are now automated, this is less than 5% of our dollar nominal traded. These are small tickets where traders do not add any value. Automation can give you time, and time for me is the most valuable commodity. Giving traders time to analyse markets, provide market colour and to generate more tickets for portfolios is where our traders and their critical skillsets are headed. Therefore, we have had to find a way to reduce time spent on the less value-add areas of execution and finding a way to automate this.”
Head of FX Trading, T. Rowe Price
Interested in reading the report?