Spending on electronic foreign exchange trading technology is set to soar with an "arms race" taking hold as firms look to improve execution speed, according to a survey from CEP vendor StreamBase.
In a poll of over 200 buy and sell side individuals actively trading forex, a massive 90% say they plan to increase spending on low latency technologies in the next 18 months.
About 65% of respondents say they execute FX trades electronically to improve execution speed with 69% using, or planning to use, algorithms. In addition, nearly half of firms plan to change or add electronic forex venues, primarily for better pricing.
Mark Palmer, CEO, StreamBase, says: "A technology arms race has begun in FX and automated, low-latency trading is the main battlefield in that race."