Forex Network rolls into London

23 April 2018

Profit & Loss’ Forex Network came to London once again. The event was as anticipated,
excellent, with panels consisting of top speakers and plenty of networking opportunities. The
most difficult task for the hosts on the day was keeping the delegates inside on what was the
warmest April day for 70 odd years!

Fortunately (for the organisers) it was clear early on that the event was going to be well
attended by an engaged audience, made up of the great and good of FX. ParFX was well
represented at the event, with several delegates in attendance, and our sponsoring of the
morning caffeine hit was as popular as ever.

The conference took a somewhat unusual, but I think positive start, with a presentation from
Cristobal Conde entitled ‘AI – Friend or Foe.’ It was a refreshing departure from the usual
economic update, although it has obvious industry implications. We now all know how utilise
an Adversarial Patch to make Facebook think we are a banana!

The pick of the panels for me were in the afternoon …. perhaps by design!

Prime is definitely back, as is Dave Reid. It was great to see him back on a panel,
appropriately named, ‘The state of prime services’. We have seen prime brokers back on the
front foot in recent months and the discussion certainly confirmed that this is the case.
Lastly, the heavyweight panel of the day was, ‘The great divide: Understanding the value of
data’. This is a topic very close to the core values of ParFX – fairness, equality and
transparency – and so we enjoyed the ensuing discussion.

Profit & Loss’ managing editor Colin Lambert asked some hard-hitting questions to panellists
such as, “is it right to create a market of haves and have nots?” in relation to premium data
packages. Our view on this matter is pretty clear: we do not offer special deals. Rather, we
distribute market data in parallel to all market participants at no extra cost to ensure there
are no haves and have nots, and everyone is treated equally on our platform.

For me, the most direct question came from the floor: “Is it fair to charge for market data if all
participants cannot afford to buy?”. This received responses including ‘data is more
important than the actual venue’ and ‘It’s really about who has the fastest machines’.
Good to see that the reasons for our existence are still very much front and centre in 2018!

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Related ParFX Team Members: Rob Parr