Bay broker has finger on world's financial pulse

A voice booms out over Skype on the computer, asking: "I've got 650,000 selling sterling, buying kiwi - what do you think."
Sam Coxhead, matter of factly, replies: "Hold off mate. Wait for the risk to come off the table."
Mr Coxhead, a foreign exchange broker based in Mount Maunganui, was talking to a colleague in Wellington.
Since March, Mr Coxhead has been running the Tauranga office of Direct FX, a privately-owned foreign exchange company, which operates out of Sydney as well as Wellington.
The company, approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, trades in the spot foreign exchange market and is the only voice-based facilitator in Australia and New Zealand dealing with up to 30 banks.
It brokers $180 billion worth of transactions for the banks which move money around on the wholesale interbank market.
Mr Coxhead, who organises global currency payments and transfers, is growing the commercial and personal side of the business, basing himself in a city that has strong immigration and a bustling port attracting energetic importers and exporters.
The Mount industrial centre is an amazing hub, said Mr Coxhead. "You don't realise how much is going on until you get out there.
"Coming from a background in (financial) markets, I'm talking to people who are doing it and making things happens. It's great fun.
"There are different kinds of businesses, it's quite surprising, and I've found it quite inspiring," he said.
Mr Coxhead has gathered a client list of about 50 since March - a mixture of exporters and importers, and individuals moving money offshore or sending it to New Zealand.
He has a group of professional sports people based in Europe and Britain, and they are looking to exchange their sterling and euro into NZ and Australian dollars.
South Africans and Britons moving to Tauranga want to sell their rand and sterling and buy the kiwi.
Direct FX charges lower fees than the banks and will work an order for a better exchange on a sum under $100,000. The banks won't do that. They place that amount (under $100,000) straight onto the market and the order is subject to the pricing at the time.
"That's our point of difference," said Mr Coxhead. "We will put an order in the system, watch the market volatility and do the deal. We can provide a foreign exchange solution for a more efficient cost."
Mr Coxhead, married with five young children (his wife comes from Te Puke), has lived in Tauranga for five years, and until the start of this year commuted to Wellington.
He worked for OM Financial, setting up their wholesale division, for seven years and before that he was a broker with Fixed Interest Securities and Harlow Butler, who also deal in the money markets from Wellington.
With the children growing up, Mr Coxhead decided he had done enough commuting and Direct FX was happy to move into more personalised commercial foreign exchange transactions.
He has set up his office in Bob Thorne's plush Thornton Lodge in Oceanbeach Rd.
Looking ahead, Mr Coxhead said the long term prospects for the NZ dollar were good.
"It will sit pretty comfortably between 69-72c against the US - we are in the upper range at present - and it will stay high against the sterling for another year or so.
"It's ridiculous being in the high 40s (against the sterling) but the UK economy is so woeful.
"I think the NZ dollar will reach mid 40s next year and mid 30s two years plus," he said.
"It's a great time to take a holiday in Europe and for companies to import plant and equipment.
"And I think the Bay will be impacted by another pick-up in immigration from UK when the dollar weakens against the sterling in about two years time," said Mr Coxhead.