Shows / The Trading Floor with David Axtell
The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Thirty-five years. Four continents. 120+ currencies. David Axtell bridges the gap between textbook theory and trading floor reality—real stories, real mistakes, hard-won lessons from institutional FX markets. From Saudi Riyal derivatives to Nigerian Naira, from building treasury functions to managing nostro networks across frontier markets. Plus bonus episodes featuring traders, treasurers, and practitioners from leading institutions. Co-authored with Luigi Rondanini.
Episodes
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 21: How Volatility Surfaces Move
When spot moves, the volatility surface can move in different ways. Explore sticky-strike and sticky-delta behaviour, Vanna exposure and why surface dynamics…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 20: OTC, Futures and the FX Derivatives Market
OTC options, listed options and futures can hedge similar risks with very different liquidity, margin, documentation and operational consequences. This episode…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 19: Structured Products: What Is Inside the Coupon?
Attractive coupons in structured notes often come from embedded option sales. This episode breaks down the economic trade hidden inside the wrapper and the…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 18: Cross-Asset Signals for FX Options
FX options do not trade in isolation. This episode connects currencies with equities, rates, commodities and global risk appetite to show how cross-asset…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 17: Central Banks, Event Risk and Implied Volatility
Central-bank decisions can lift implied volatility before an announcement and crush it afterward. This episode explains event risk, volatility repricing and…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 16: FX Options in Emerging Markets
Emerging-market currencies add capital controls, non-deliverability, liquidity gaps and political constraints. Learn why standard FX option techniques need…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellS2E06 Pricing: From Fair Value to the Number on the Screen
Two treasurers call the same dealer, the same morning, for the same swap — and get different numbers. Neither is being cheated. Episode six opens the gap…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 15: Operational Risk on an Options Desk
Some of the largest losses on a derivatives desk come from process rather than market direction. This episode covers confirmations, settlement, controls…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 14: Capital Allocation for FX Options
How regulation and internal models turn market risk into capital requirements. Explore the link between options exposure, capital allocation and the economics…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 13: Value at Risk and Tail Risk
Value at Risk can be mathematically correct and still miss the loss that matters. This episode examines confidence levels, holding periods, fat tails and why…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 12: Hybrid Payoffs and Autocallable Structures
Autocallables and hybrid structures can look complex, but they are built from familiar option components. This episode decomposes the payoff and shows where…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 11: Trading Volatility with Variance Swaps
Variance swaps let traders take a direct view on realised versus implied volatility. This episode explains the payoff logic and how volatility can be traded…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 10: Correlation and Basket Options
Basket options combine several currencies into one payoff. Learn how correlation creates the apparent diversification benefit and why that benefit can…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 9: Asian Options and Average-Rate Hedging
Asian options use an average exchange rate rather than a single fixing. This episode shows why average-rate structures fit recurring exposures and how…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellThe Cross-Currency Basis: Why It Exists and Won't Go Away
There's a number quoted daily on every major currency pair that, in theory, should be zero. It isn't, and hasn't been for nearly two decades. Episode five is…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 8: Barrier Options: Knock-Ins and Knock-Outs
Knock-in and knock-out barriers can radically change cost and risk. Understand how barriers behave as spot approaches the trigger and why discontinuous…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 7: Digital Options and Binary Payoffs
Digital options pay a fixed amount if a condition is met and nothing if it is not. This episode explains their discontinuous payoff, pricing behaviour and…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 6: Vanilla Strategies: Calls, Puts and Collars
Calls, puts, spreads and collars translated into real treasury decisions. Learn how zero-cost structures are assembled and why no-upfront-premium never means…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 5: Reading the FX Volatility Surface
Why implied volatility is not one number. Explore smiles, skews, term structure and the way strike and expiry combine to create the FX volatility surface used…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 4: The Greeks: Delta, Gamma, Vega and Theta
Delta, Gamma, Vega and Theta are the core language of options risk. This episode explains what each Greek measures and why traders manage the sensitivities…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 3: Black-Scholes, Garman-Kohlhagen and FX Pricing
How the classic Black-Scholes framework is adapted for currencies through two interest rates, forward pricing and the Garman-Kohlhagen approach used across FX…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 2: Option Value: Direction Is Not Enough
Why getting the currency direction right is not enough. This episode explains intrinsic value, time value, moneyness and the forces that can make an option…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellHow Cross-Currency Swaps Are Valued: Multi-Curve, Basis and OIS Discounting
Before 2008, one yield curve valued a swap. The crisis proved that wrong. Episode four rebuilds cross-currency swap valuation from the ground up: why…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellEpisode 1: Inside the OTC FX Options Market
A practical look at how the decentralised OTC FX options market works, who provides liquidity, why bespoke contracts dominate, and how venue and dealer choice…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellFX Options Daily: Why FX Options Daily
David Axtell introduces FX Options Daily, a 30-day season of The Trading Floor built around the institutional practice of pricing, hedging, exotics and risk in…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellInside the Market: Dealers, Platforms and Execution
Why do two desks quote different prices for the identical cross-currency swap? Episode three goes inside the market's plumbing: the concentrated dealer panel…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellAnatomy of a Cross-Currency Swap
If you can't describe every cash flow in a cross-currency swap, you don't yet understand it. Episode two builds the trade from the ground up: principal…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellWhy Cross-Currency Swaps Matter
Why do companies borrow in a currency they don't need, just to swap into the one they do? Episode one of The Trading Floor's new season introduces the…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellCross-Currency Swaps and Basis Trading | The Trading Floor Season 2 Trailer
The Trading Floor is a professional markets podcast from Rondanini Publishing Ltd.Hosted in Season 2 by veteran FX-market practitioner David Axtell, the…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
FX Options: Mind the Gap Between the Model and the Market
Why do FX options sometimes behave very differently from what the pricing formula suggests?In this episode of The Trading Floor, Luigi Pascal Rondanini…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
The Trading Floor Bonus: A Private Control Plane for FX & Treasury
"A machine that refuses to guess is rarer than a machine that can talk."In this special bonus episode of The Trading Floor, David Axtell steps away from market…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Bonus: An Honest Conversation — What This Was and What Comes Next
Luigi Rondanini speaks frankly: the podcast, the books, the effort. FX Cash Products selling well. FX Derivatives out September. Book 3 with David Axtell in…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
The Future of FX: Where the Market Goes Next
Season One finale. David Axtell on the future of FX: AI, T+1 settlement, renminbi internationalisation. Book 2 (FX Options, sole-authored by Luigi) and Book 3…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
NDF Risk Management: What Can Go Wrong
NDFs carry risks standard forwards don't. David Axtell covers delta exposure, EM VaR, stress testing peg breaks, fixing manipulation, CSA structures…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Inside the NDF Market: Liquidity, Dealers, and Execution
Not all NDF liquidity is equal. David Axtell breaks down the three-tier market structure, how dealers skew quotes to manage inventory, when electronic beats…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
NDFs: Hedging the Currencies Nobody Delivers
Capital controls block physical currency delivery. David Axtell explains how non-deliverable forwards solve that problem — settlement mechanics, fixing…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Liquidity Management: A Treasurer's Toolkit
Every payment, every currency, every day. David Axtell covers the treasurer's daily toolkit: FX swaps, repo, money markets, LCR, NSFR, intraday management, and…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Central Bank Operations: How the Fed Became the World's Dollar Lender
Dollar swap lines. Reserve management. Intervention mechanics. David Axtell explains how central banks operate in FX markets, why verbal jawboning moves rates…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Funding in Foreign Currency: Why Banks Live on Swaps
$13 trillion of non-US bank assets funded via FX swaps. David Axtell explains synthetic dollar borrowing, why the cross-currency basis never disappears…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
FX Swaps: The Instrument Nobody Talks About
$3.8 trillion a day. More than spot. More than forwards. Yet most practitioners can't explain them clearly. David Axtell breaks down FX swap structure, swap…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Hedge Accounting – Making the CFO Happy
Your hedging programme works perfectly. The economics are flawless. Then five million dollars appears as a loss in your quarterly earnings — and nobody told…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Hedging in Practice – Building a Corporate Programme
Knowing what a forward contract is won't help you if you don't know how to use it inside an organisation.Episode 11 moves from theory to practice. David Axtell…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Forward Pricing – Interest Rate Parity and the Forward Curve
Why does a three-month EUR/USD forward trade at 1.0825 when spot is 1.0850? The answer isn't a forecast. It's mathematics.Episode 10 takes on the pricing…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Forward Contracts – Locking in Tomorrow's Rate Today
You know what exchange rate you're getting today. But what about the payment due in ninety days?Episode 9 opens Part Three of The Trading Floor — forward…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Settlement Risk and CLS – The Infrastructure of Trust
You execute a trade. Both sides agree on the price. The deal is done. But is it really?In Episode 8, David Axtell explains what happens after the handshake —…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
The Python Toolkit: Pricing FX Cash Markets Properly
In this special episode of The Trading Floor, Luigi Pascal Rondanini walks through the Python toolkit that accompanies FX Cash Products — the first volume in…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Transaction Costs – What You're Really Paying
You see the spread. You think that's what the trade costs. It's not even close.In Episode 7, David Axtell breaks down the real cost of executing in FX markets…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Execution: From Voice to Algorithm
Episode 6 explores the evolution of FX execution from voice-based relationship trading to sophisticated electronic and algorithmic methods. David Axtell draws…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Behind the Scenes: What's Coming in Season One
Luigi Rondanini takes over the mic to reveal Season One's roadmap: 18 episodes covering spot, forwards, swaps, and NDFs. Behind-the-scenes challenges of…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellSpot: The Heartbeat of FX
Episode 5 begins Part II: Spot FX with comprehensive coverage of how spot transactions actually work from trade agreement to final settlement. David Axtell…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellReading the Screen: Quotes, Pips, and What the Numbers Mean
Episode 4 completes Part I: Foundations by teaching listeners how to read and understand foreign exchange quotations. David Axtell breaks down the fundamental…
- The Trading Floor with David Axtell
Market Participants – Who's in the Market and Why It Matters
Foreign exchange is the largest financial market in the world—but who's actually in it?In Episode 3, David Axtell breaks down the five key player groups: banks…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellThe $7.5 Trillion Market - Why FX Works the Way It Does
Why doesn't foreign exchange trade on an exchange like stocks? Why does it operate 24 hours? And why is the US dollar at the centre of everything? In this…
The Trading Floor with David AxtellThe Trading Floor: 35 Years on the Desk
David Axtell introduces The Trading Floor—why this podcast exists, and why now. From NatWest in the 1980s to building nostro networks across 120 currencies at…