Liquidity Illusion Burns Traders Blindsided by Pound’s Crash

(Bloomberg) The inexplicable volatility that roiled the British pound last week came as no surprise to Bank of America Corp., which just days earlier warned that liquidity in the $5.1 trillion-per-day global currency market was far worse than anyone imagined.

Sterling sank 6.1 percent in a span of minutes in early Asian trading Oct. 7, following at least three other bouts of puzzling foreign-exchange turbulence in the past two years. The latest episode involved the fourth-most-traded currency, serving up a stark reminder of the pitfalls that investors face in the world’s biggest financial market as banks — the traditional middlemen — step back amid post-crisis regulations.

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