P&L Chicago attracts the best and the brightest from the FX world

4 October 2017

Held at The Westin, more than 500 buy-side and sell-side representatives congregated to share their knowledge and insights on the FX market through dynamic roundtable discussions and live panel debates.

There was an immediate difference for delegates attending this year’s event, with the introduction of ‘think-tank’ sessions at the start of the agenda. Some felt that the new format fragmented the audience. In my opinion, as much as I love listening to panel debates and speeches, it was nice for the audience to lead the conversation and to be able to dive into a critical FX issue of their choice. Top marks for audience engagement, P&L!

On the agenda were a wide range of topics including geopolitics, regulation, liquidity, execution and fintech. I opted to join the liquidity session, which focused on whether FX liquidity had changed post-SNB. After a lively dialogue, we casted our votes and 61% of respondents indicated they felt it had worsened.

The session took a particularly interesting turn as discussions moved towards disruptive trading behaviour and what measures have been put in place to mitigate this. As this is one of the reasons ParFX was created, I suggested that, rather than having multiple layers such as complex internalisation and TCA to mitigate poor behaviour, why not introduce a preventative solution to stop it from even occurring at all? Cue further pondering and discussion on the effectiveness of different models and approaches.

Liquidity, fragmentation and geopolitics definitely dominated day two, with the first panel discussing the feedback from our ‘think-tank’ session. The panelists all agreed that gapping and mini flash crashes would become the new normal, but there was little consensus on how things could be improved.

A top highlight of mine was the opening chat by Andrew Busch from the CFTC on the final day. Andrew did a great job of engaging the audience with a lively discussion around what the CFTC are doing to prevent financial crime rather than police and punish.

Throughout the two days the ParFX brand was ever present and as always it was a great pleasure for us to sponsor the coffee breaks. This provided an opportunity for me and many others to network with some of our partners (including ParFX's founder banks) and Chicago-based customers

The Profit and Loss conference has always been a ‘must do’ as such a large proportion of the industry attends. For that reason alone it is not to be missed.

I look forward to attending next year and enjoying the 34-degree weather again!

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Related ParFX Team Members: Rob Parr