Old School FX Traders Are Being Replaced By Algos With Names Like Viper

*From Bloomberg reporters William Shaw and Alice Atkins:*

For decades, banks have been lamenting that a lack of data prevented them from automating FX markets like they had in equities. But swift adoption of algorithms in recent years has that changing — and fast. Before the pandemic, just 22% of hedge funds were using the technology to execute their currency trades. Now, close to half of them are.

It all means that gone are the days of the Barrow Boys, the boisterous traders who spent their days shouting bids in slang that deemed the Bank of England “The Old Lady” and the process of buying up £1 billion against the US dollar a “yard of cable.” Instead, with algorithms now handling more than 75% of the trading in spot markets for FX, the usual soundtrack for the trading floor is the hum of computers and the click-clack of keyboards.

This new era isn’t without its downsides for the giants of Wall Street. With machines doing much of the work, it means trading desks are making a lot less for each currency trade than they did in the past. And without a human to intervene, there’s a heightened risk that something could go awry, especially in periods of extreme volatility. Read more [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-07-07/wall-street-giants-replace-traders-with-algorithms-in-new-fx-era).