g10 vol q's

bearflatten:

so few random q's:

-- how wide does eurusd trade? how about something less liquid, usdchf or usdsek? just in bpv roughly, say benchmark tenor like 6m.

-- what's the broker culture like? what's bro on a standard trade?

-- i get the feeling sydney open, london hours and nyc open are busiest? by the time nyc afternoon rolls around, feels pretty dead, is this accurate?

-- how antagonistic are dealer desks w/ fast money community? in rates, varies desk by desk - i'd guess spot would try to cover every trade, exotics guys would try to print everything and g10 vanilla would be somewhere in the middle?

just a few questions from a simple rates guy..

FX Vol is all quoted in % Implied Vol, so 6m euro in social is generally .2-.25 for customers. chf and sek is probably .4-.6, sek is less liquid than chf for the most part, less natural flow.

Bro on a trade depends on the notional and the agreement with the bank. Because of this, if you somehow trade 5 delta flies in size, high fives on the brokerage side will be had.

Sydney is largely irrelevant in the sense that all the firms are located in either Sing or HK... and increasingly Sing at that. I would say in general, when London comes in, that usually sets the tone for the day, but NY would probably say the same thing. Each center adds its own perspective to what should be going on. NY afternoon in summer in particular are dead unless US equities are going nuts. London's time is, all said, the busiest in terms of flow, but they do have more people.

Depends on the person and situation of course. Fast money often asks very short-dated options, which can make it difficult to capture any flow by calling out (in FX Vol we can call other banks directly via reuters dealing and ask for a price). In that case, you might want to try to alleviate some of the strike risk and manage the gamma/theta if you like the side. If its longer dated, I guess you see if it suits, if you like the side, and if not try to work out of it.

Hope this helps.