When the trend is your friend

The egos knocking around investment banks do not readily admit to defeat - from prime brokers to prop desks, the hunger to be number one is palpable.

So when a head FX trader at one bank suggested recently the lack of nimbleness in some banks' technology means the big banks are in effect subsidising hedge fund profit books, you know it's serious.

Big banks and ECNs had created the FX hedge fund industry, so the claim went, and then failed to keep pace with their newer, more nimble counterparts.

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