At last, FX online

IN LONDON'S banks, foreign-exchange dealers used to be near the bottom of the sociological heap. And despite a recent influx of dealers with—heavens!—university degrees, many still recall street-traders. With turnover estimated at $1.5 trillion a day, foreign exchange is the biggest market in the world, and one of the most competitive, at least in the interbank market, where spreads are wafer-thin. The past six months have seen a flurry of initiatives aimed at using the Internet to bring this pricing to institutional investors and non-bank firms.