Bloomberg Launches FX Pricing from Chats Tool

Although e-ratios remain impressive, they have flattened out in recent years, which in turn has seen the drive for efficiency in FX markets slow somewhat. One constant in that theme has been the popularity of trading via chats, which introduces an element of manual effort to the workflow – something Bloomberg is seeking to address with the launch of MYQ, a price monitoring tool that displays quotes scraped from user chats.

MYQ takes FX quotes detected by Bloomberg’s NLP within a user’s Instant Bloomberg (IB) chats, and displays them in a centralised, FX curve-style format that groups quotes by currency pairs, tenors, and bid/offer levels. This helps users maximise efficiency in their pre-trade workflow, the firm says, adding that it also helps traders streamline price discovery and the decision-making process ahead of execution on separate trading solutions.

The solution is intended to reduce what Bloomberg terms the “swivel chair” challenge whereby traders are constantly toggling between multiple chats and applications as part of their pre-trade process. The firm says this generates operation inefficiency, can impede access to liquidity and slow down execution, including missing best prices.

MYQ allows users to streamline discoverability, tailor their user experience and improve communication efficiency. With this Bloomberg NLP-enhanced workflow, each user gains insights into the FX liquidity available to them so they can increase their price discovery with an overview of their incoming quotes from their chats with counterparties, the firm states. 

MYQ features a History tab, which provides a log of price quotes from chats so that users can view them in chronological order, as well as customisation options that give users an enhanced perspective of price depth per currency and tenor, and helps users hone in on the most relevant communications.

By clicking on a quote in MYQ, traders can jump directly to the IB chat room where it originated, with the specific quote line item in the chat highlighted so the user can connect with their counterparty to negotiate trades. 

“FX market participants often need to sift through massive quantities of fragmented pricing data across dozens of applications just to source the right liquidity to meet their objectives,” says Ed Loftus, head of FX relative value and applications at Bloomberg. “By harnessing Bloomberg’s NLP to structure chat-based quotes within the MYQ solution, we are transforming how clients quickly find prices and streamline FX trade negotiation.”