As five banks are hit with massive fines relating to an investigation into foreign exchange markets, an insight into the collusive and macho world of the forex-riggers has emerged
On Wednesday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Wednesday published "Examples of Misconduct in Private Chat Rooms" which detailed the online conversations between traders as they tried to manipulate the markets.
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It revealed that traders called on each other to "join forces" and "double team it", before congratulating each other on the outcome.
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Here are some examples of chat room conversations published by the CFTC (the spelling mistakes are theirs, not ours):
In the first extract, three traders discuss inviting a fourth into their private chat room:
Bank Y Trader: will he tell rest of desk stuff
god forbin his nyk…
Bank X Trader: yes
that's really imp[ortant] q[uestion]
dont want other numpty's in mkt to know
but not only that
is he gonna protect us
like we protect each other against our own branches
Every day, a currency fix is agreed, based on the price that currency trades at over a 60 second period. Traders were eager to make a quick profit by buying up currencies just before they knew clients were going to buy large amounts of the same currency at the daily fix. This way the traders could sell on at a profit when the price rose at the fix.
Before the 4 p.m. fix period closes, traders discuss cable - another name for the sterling-dollar exchange rate:
Bank W Trader: early days but im a seller cable at fix
Bank S Trader: here also
Bank R Trader: u got much to do in fix [Bank Trader W]
Bank W Trader: im seller 130 cable that it
Bank W Trader: hopefulyl a fe wmore get same way and we can team whack it
After the fix period, they congratulated each other:
Bank R Trader: well done gents
Bank W Trader: hooray nice team work
Bank U Trader: nice one mate
And here's another celebratory example:
Bank W Trader: yeah babyxx
Bank W Trader: [Bank U Trader] [Bank W Trader 1] combo boom
Bank U Trader: loved that mate
Bank U Trader: worked lovely
Bank U Trader: pity we couldn't get it below the 00
In another extract, the traders - from different banks - explicitly refer to working together:
Bank W Trader: i'd prefer we join forces
Bank Y Trader: perfick
lets do this…
Bank Y Trader: lets double team them
Bank W Trader: YESssssssssssss
Here, traders discuss unloading positions just prior to the fix period:
Bank W Trader: can u let me know when are down to your last tenner
Bank U Trader: ok
Bank U Trader: i'm down to my last tenner
Bank W Trader: ok ta
Bank W Trader: just sold some more
Bank U Trader: hahaha
Bank W Trader: hehehe
Bank W Trader: nice on[e] son
Bank U Trader: learnt from a good fella
Bank W Trader: there u go
Bank W Trader: go early, move it, hold it, push it
- By CNBC's Katrina Bishop