FIXING TIMES - in the forex market/s

[JTrader]

Hello

I've recently heard of the term Fixing Times, but have not found any comprehensive information about them. Please could somebody explain what Fixing Times are, and how much/to what extent they affect the forex market, and the prices that are offered by retail forex brokers such as Oanda, RJOFX , CMS, GFT?

At what times do Fixing Times occur within the 24 hour global forex market?

Do fixing times occur in both the cash forex market, and the futures forex market?

In which other financial markets do Fixing Times take place?

Cheers

jtrader.

 

[Mayfly]

Hi Jtrader,

Briefly, I suspect your question may be related to the actual trading hours of the FOREX feed and its reset times. So far as I know, S&P (for example) actually reset their feed at 22:30'ish – or thereabouts – which means that anything received after 22:30 are really prices for a new trading day, so any new OHL prices sent after 22:30 will reset the values in your local database, or wherever it is that your data happens to be stored.

This is an issue that most vendors are aware off, but this doesn’t mean to say they have a solution in place. To correct the EOD OHL prices most vendors normally recommend that you download the history for the instruments that interest you the following trading day.

I may be wrong about this, but I think that reset is a better term that fixing. Don't you?

HTH

Cheers

Mayfly

 

[JTrader]

http://www.moneytec.com/forums/printthread.php?threadid=7936 -
Posted by mishak on 29-04-2004 01:08:
Currency Fixings

Hello forex fellows

Right, fix is the abbreviation of Fixing. It is a special time during the day - some time after the open and/or before the close of the local market.
Big client orders may be set at the "fixing price" - it means at the price which would be at the fixing time. On special days clients orders attached to the Fixing may reach several billions.

For example, the client's order may be "buy 300 mln EUR/USD for me at London 11:00 fixing".

The well known fixing times are Tokyo fixing (at 1:00 GMT), mostly used for USD/JPY and yen based crosses.
There are two London fixings on currencies at 11:00 and 16:00 London time (now it is BST= GMT+1, so at 10:00 GMT and 15:00 GMT in summertime).

The second London fixings happens with New-York open - at 11 EST.

There was a Frankfurt fixing (at 13:00 CET = 12:00 London) before the Euro era (if I recall correctly).

There could be local currency fixings in any country according to domestic banking habits. Have heard about NZD fixing which happens at 9:00 GMT.......................

Posted by mishak on 29-04-2004 01:23:
Funds flow into the Fixing

Client orders may influence the forex prices at the fixing times.

Imagine, you are a big bank forex market maker, you have a lot of client books and you receive unusually big flow of clients' orders "at the fixing price" on some day. You balance buyers against sellers, and come out with extra 300 mil EUR/USD to be bought at the fixing prices.
Of course you start to buy before the fixing time - with hopes that your constant buying will move prices higher to the moment of fixing. So you could sell your supply of EUR back to your clients at these fixing prices and make guaranteed? profits.

Everything would be fine unless another big bank forex market maker gets the overflow of his selling EUR/USD clients. That another bank will start selling before fixing. Market forces will fight against each other and the demand will win

Another effect is that the trading is slowing after the fixing (for some period of time).

The point is that the forex price levels at fixing times are important, because they represent the consensus of big market forces at that specific hour.

Take care and have fun

Thanks Mayfly

but i think the term "fixing time" that i have been made aware of has a different meaning. Quoted is an explanation that I found on moneytec.com - but i have no idea how accurate this information is.

What i am wanting to know is -

What precisely are fixing times?

At what times do Fixing Times occur within the 24 hour global forex market?

Do fixing times occur in both the cash forex market, and the futures forex market?

In which other financial markets do Fixing Times take place?

How significant are/can these "fixing times" be in creating volatility/spikes?

Thanks again

jtrader.

 

[peterpr]

Hello

I've recently heard of the term Fixing Times, but have not found any comprehensive information about them.

Sounds to me like your confusing FOREX with the London Bullion Market.

The LBM comprises a number of large banks/dealers. The prices at which precious metal bullion is traded between them is fixed twice every working day - morning and afternoon, which in turn is a major factor in the price none-LBM members can buy and sell bullion from/to them. The fixings influence the futures markets in similar fashion to the way an equity index influences its future and vice-versa.

No real parallels in FOREX so far as I can see - except that the 24/7 spot prices quoted by the FOREX brokers and banks have a similar relationship to respective currency futures - nobody does any 'fixing' though - unless your a conspiricy theorist that is!

 

[jmreeve]

Interest rates are fixed by BBA and the European bank.

More information is available on the websites.
http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=141
http://www.euribor.org/

 

[peterpr]

"no real parallels in fx"
Not true I'm afraid.
GJ

Thanks for that GJ - It just happens that I'm into heavy duty FOREX research right now, having steered clear until recently ( which is probably why the thread caught my eye in the first place).

Hadn't read the Moneytec quote when I posted - which equates to going off half-cocked I guess. It's just that the way the thread question was framed (ie the one I replied to) shouted "LBM Fix" to my untutored FOREX eye and, having become something of an LBM fix watcher over the years, I responded accordingly.

Sorry for any confusion sown.

 

[s-a]

jtrader,
Thanks for searching for information about this subject. I had never even heard of it before.

GJ,
Insightful information as usual. I look forward to reading your article and greatly appreciate your donation of time.

HG

 

[Mayfly]

Guys,

Re: my post above.

Sorry if I got hold of the wrong end of the stick! Still, it’s nice to know that you’ll be soundly beaten with one if you get caught talking out of your **** on this site, isn’t it? :cheesy:

Looking forwards to reading your article in due course, GJ.

Cheers

Mayfly

 

[s-a]

I've noticed that at around 0200 GMT during the Asia session it can often cause some moves around this time. I wonder if this is one of the regular fixing times used. Maybe we can use this thread to catalogue them?

I wonder, can I call up a major bank here and find out what their fixing time is? I could call up the main bank here in New Zealand and maybe find out.

HG

 

[dageshi]

I asked on another forum

Came back with the following response from someone who has more contacts than I

I sent an email off to Currenex about the fixing times and here they are...

As per your inquiry, the following are the 'Fixings' times for CitiFX Benchmark, in country's local times:

Sydney: 0900 (2200 GMT); 0945 (2245 GMT)
Tokyo: 0955 (0055 GMT); 1100 (0200 GMT); 1300 (0400 GMT); 1400 (0500 GMT); 1500 (0600 GMT)
London: 0900 GMT, 1000 GMT; 1100 GMT; 1200 GMT; 1315 GMT; 1500 GMT; 1600 GMT
New York: 1200 (1700 GMT); 1500 (2000 GMT)

Hope this answers your question Dageshi!

Whole thread at

http://www.forexzoo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54

 

[s-a]

Awesome, thank you!

 

[JTrader]

Dageshi -
I sent an email off to Currenex about the fixing times and here they are...

As per your inquiry, the following are the 'Fixings' times for CitiFX Benchmark, in country's local times:

Sydney: 0900 (2200 GMT); 0945 (2245 GMT)
Tokyo: 0955 (0055 GMT); 1100 (0200 GMT); 1300 (0400 GMT); 1400 (0500 GMT); 1500 (0600 GMT)
London: 0900 GMT, 1000 GMT; 1100 GMT; 1200 GMT; 1315 GMT; 1500 GMT; 1600 GMT
New York: 1200 (1700 GMT); 1500 (2000 GMT)

Hope this answers your question Dageshi!

HiIs "CitiFX Benchmark" a standard convention adhered to by all the forex banks/market makers within the interbank market – in setting the prices at “fixed times” – at which deals can go through at the “fixed price”, or is CitiFX Benchmark just part of the policy and proceedures of how Currenex operates?

Therefore are these the standard "fixing times" used by all the banks/market makers within the interbanks market - or does each bank determine their own times and policies regarding fixing times?

 

[dageshi]

Hi

Is "CitiFX Benchmark" a standard convention adhered to by all the forex banks within the interbank market - or is it just the policy and proceedure of how Currenex operates? Therefore are these the standard "fixing times" used by all the banks within the interbanks market - or does each bank determine their own times and policies regarding fixing times?

Cheers

jtrader.

From the replies we've had on this thread, I'd guess that there are no fixed times, altho certain times will be more popular than others.

I can't be certain of that tho.

 

[s-a]

Look forward to it GJ - thank you.

One question, are the times you posted in GMT?

HG

 

[s-a]

OK, thanks!

 

[charliechan]

.....

The official fixings all relate to cash market prices. I have no idea if the futures exchanges publish an equivalent but I doubt it. Obviously though, spikes caused by fixing trades ill have some knock on effet in the futures market, as whenever prices get more than a pip out of lilne arb traders will step in.

Looking at mishak's post on moneytec, the detail of the mechanics of how market makers approach it isn't far off, but the most active fix times don't correspond to my personal experience, so I'll try and pull all this together later on this month.
Hope this helps

GJ

the cme do have a daily fixing at 9.00 cst - but this is only for option expiration purposes. currently it only applies to the euro and yen futures, as they are the only fx contracts with both european and american style options. im sure they just call it a 'fix' for affect - for all you forex junkies