Alphabay, the Van der Moolen spin-off including most higher ranked managers, has been axing their headcount. Approximately half the staff has been laid off, including the general manager. Earlier some support staff were fired in an attempt to cut costs. Alphabay is sharing some facilities with the well reputed broker Aespen; the latter has told two brokers to go.
Last Thursday an interesting article in the national newspaper NRC was published on derivative trading from the trader’s perspective. Interviews with traders from Optiver and Caerus. Trying to get a hold of the text as soon as possible. Here is the piece in original pdf format, page one and page two. Of course all copyrights belong to NRC Handelsblad.
Les professionals from Quote magazine are busy compiling their Dutch top 500 rich list. It would be safe to say some of the Flow Traders will make their entrance on the list, like Roger Hodenius with an expected net worth of 60 million. His former apartment is still for sale.
A well known entrepreneur from the old days, Jan Kluft, has basically left the option trading market for a couple of years. His new activities in the pension market had a “long rho position”, and lost on the low interest rates. Sales team has been fired.