Trading in FX an Equinix Series Part Three: The Equinix FX Ecosystems
This third and final part of the series reviews the growth of the FX trading community inside Equinix data centers and the role it plays in today's global FX market, looking ahead at how trends may evolve in the
future.
"Most of the FX community now runs through Equinix data centers, which makes everything so much simpler in terms of implementing and connecting into everybody, versus having to manage individual infrastructures. The evolution of financial networks like Equinix has simplified the ability for everyone to connect with one and other in a fast and efficient manner."
Bill Goodbody, Managing Director, KCG Hotspot FX The key financial centers for global FX trading today are New York, London and Tokyo. Equinix runs major data centers in all three regions, with NY4, LD4 and TY3 all serving as centralized FX liquidity "macro-hubs." These data centers form a critical part of the global Foreign Exchange market infrastructure, connecting retail and institutional traders to multiple FX trading platforms, ECNs, data vendors, a myriad of service providers, and hundreds of buyside
and sell-side firms.
This FX trading ecosystem within Equinix has grown 18% YoY since 2009, driven not only by new trading venues and market participants but also by existing players establishing a presence in new markets, as electronic trading in FX becomes ever more widely adopted. nBy leveraging this global infrastructure, market participants are offered a neutral foundation from which to compete and collaborate within the world's largest multi-asset class electronic trading ecosystem, facilitating the flow of currency in a truly follow-the-sun operating model.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of today's global FX markets and identified some of the challenges and opportunities facing market participants.
The second part looked look at some of the latest innovations and trends in the market and how firms are capitalizing on technology to give themselves and their customers a competitive advantage.