, Columnist
FX Conduct and Disappearing Bonds
Also performance reviews, skin care, cows, helicopters, etc.
FX conduct.
The job of a financial market intermediary is to acquire and manage information. If you are a broker or dealer or trader or M&A adviser, you have to know who's buying so you can help sellers sell, and you have to know who's selling so you can help buyers buy. So you will always have conflicts of interest. You'll talk to a buyer who'll say "boy I really would like to buy," and then you'll talk to a seller who'll say "man I am just desperate to sell," and there will be some gains from trade available there, and your decisions about what to tell whom when will help shape who -- the buyer, the seller, or you -- benefits most from them.