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Sources say former Bear Stearns FX option trader Andrew Dexter has resurfaced at boutique firm LaBranche Structured Products in New York. He will apparently set up and head the firms new FX option operation.

Barclays Capital has confirmed one appointment and two internal promotions in its Asia-Pacific FX senior management team. As reported here in April, Adrian McGowan is joining as managing director and head of foreign exchange trading, Asia-Pacific, from Deutsche Bank. Based in Singapore, he will report to Ivan Ritossa, the firm’s global head of FX and head of global markets trading, Asia-Pacific.

Well-placed sources say that Steve Pearson has left Bank of Scotland Treasury – as HBoS calls its dealing operations – where he was chief currency strategist. The word is he is taking Merrill Lynch’s silver, although Merrill has declined to comment. Its reticence is odd; after all, Pearson’s appointment is not likely to prove a share price mover. Pearson also ran a model-trading programme at Bank of Scotland. It is not known whether his role at Merrill will be forecasting or model trading.

Plan sponsors are turning their attention toward frontier markets as emerging markets continue to gain popularity among institutional investors.

Charlie Berman, a long-standing veteran of the debt origination business at Citi, is moving internally to a new job in investment banking. Berman is a Salomon stalwart, who during a long career has run European debt capital markets, either jointly or solely, and the frequent borrower business.

A ray of sunshine with a fall in commodity prices and financial market optimism, but it can only be a brief respite as clouds return and spread beyond the USA.

The backbiting between the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq OMX Group has escalated, with the NYSE comparing Nasdaq’s share and listing statistics to "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." NYSE member firm and listings departments fired off nearly-identical missives to members and issuers saying that like the romantic comedy, Nasdaq’s marketing of its volume and listings successes "blends identities and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality." NYSE has called attention to what it perceives to be inaccuracies in Nasdaq’s reporting for the past few months, and it promises to continue to do so without "Shakespearean drama."

It seems that lately everyone wants in on currency exchange-traded fund action. Wisdom Tree and Barclays Global Investors recently launched currency ETFs and last week Rydex Investments announced it would launch four currency ETFs that focus on Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia and South Africa. So far no firms have been speculative enough to launch a currency ETF based on the Zimbabwean dollar. Count yourself lucky volatility-hating investors!

It’s often said that it’s far easier to predict where a market is going when you’re sitting on the sidelines. Not being directly involved in a market allows a clarity of thought lost to all but the most intellectually-detached traders. Most people find their views get distorted either by their positions or P&L.

It has become an unwritten rule between the banks that they do not comment when each others’ platforms suffer glitches. And it makes sense not to express any schadenfreude, because the nature of technology means we all have an IT nightmare at some stage.

Last week I wrote that I was considering launching a TV version of the WeeklyFiX. This week I have had another brainwave about how to take the column to a broader audience.

As I have stressed time and time again, there is a lot of excellence in FX. Unfortunately though, when it comes to receiving pitches for the Euromoney Awards for Excellence, there seems to be a misunderstanding that only the big boys need apply.